The  Virgo  Book  Co. 
San  Jose,  Calif. 


The  Bondage   of  Eallinger 


BY   ROSWELL    FIELD 


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than  rose-tinted  and  fragrant  youth — be 
cause  she  is  his  mother. 

— Chicago  Daily  News. 


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of 


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'Secoifd "impress! on,'  (October,  1903 
Third  Impression.  November,  1903 
Fourth  Impression,  November,  1903 


COPYRIGHT 

1903 

By  FI.KMIM;    H.   REVELL    COMPANY 
September 


TO    GEORGE    RECORD    PECK 

FRIEND,  SCHOLAR,  BOOKMAN 

What  renegades  would  blush  to  own  the  stamp 
Of  pleasing  slavery  to  the  evening  lamp? 
Or  boast  that  in  their  treachery  they  took 
The  bookman  from  the  bondage  of  his  book? 
Their  blustering  we  flout,  their  acts  contemn; 
Such  knaves  are  not  for  us,  nor  we  for  them. 
With  you,  Erasmus,  have  we  joined  our  oaths: 
First  the  Greek  authors,  then,  perhaps,  some  clothes ! 


866363 


TH  E  rambling  hottse,"  with  its  chain  'd£ 
gables,  its  old-fashioned  windows, 
and  its  covered  passageway  leading  back 
to  the  woodshed  and  the  row  of  outer 
buildings,  was  known  for  many  years,  and 
is  still  known,  for  anything  that  has  been 
certified  to  the  contrary,  as  the  parsonage. 
In  the  summer-time  the  honeysuckle  and  the 
clematis  spread  and  bloom  over  the  porches, 
as  if  apologizing  for  the  disappearance  of 
the  paint  that  once  was  the  free  offering  of 
the  parish,  and  up  the  little  back  passage 
the  nasturtium  and  morning-glory  climb 
and  cluster,  briskly  doing  their  share  in  the 
work  of  hiding  the  ruins  of  former  splen 
dor.  Their  fragrance  dissipates  the  musty 
scent  that  steals  from  the  battered  boards, 
and  is  likened  respectfully  to  the  odor  of 
sanctity  with  which  the  premises  have  been 
so  long  invested.  But  when  the  blossoms 
have  blown  across  the  road,  and  the  fall 
rains  have  come  and  gone,  and  the  New 
9 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

England  winter  has  set  in,  the  snow  drifts 
furibiifcjy  around;  £hs:  parsonage,  and  piles 
itself  over  the  <p<?rcjie&  and  up  to  the  lower 
windows;  -while1  the1  old  house,  that  has  val 
iantly  withstood  the  storms  of  nearly  two 
centuries,  creaks  and  groans  under  the 
assault,  as  it  stands  exposed  in  its  brown 
ugliness. 

Some  histories  relate  that  in  the  days 
when  Englishmen  conspired  against  their 
king  and  contended  for  the  godly  life  and 
liberty  of  religious  purpose,  there  was  a 
Giles  Ballinger,  a  stanch  Puritan,  who 
fought  with  Cromwell  at  Marston  Moor, 
and  was  ever  among  the  first  of  those  who 
saw  the  battle's  front  and  at  last  drove 
Prince  Rupert  back  across  the  Lancashire 
hills.  Again  at  Naseby  and  at  Dunbar  the 
lusty  young  Roundhead  bore  a  charmed 
life,  and  at  Worcester  he  was  in  the  thick 
of  the  fight  that  shattered  the  power  of  the 
Royalists  and  sent  Charles  flying  over  the 
sea.  This  intrepid  Giles  came  often  under 
the  eye  of  "Ironsides,"  who  commended 
him  as  "serving  with  all  faithfulness  and 

10 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

honour' ' ;  but  what  became  of  him  afterward 
no  chronicles  have  distinctly  set  down. 
Certain  traditions  of  the  Connecticut  Valley 
have  it  that  when  Cromwell  was  no  more, 
and  the  second  Charles  came  to  the  throne, 
Giles  fled  from  England  with  Goffe  and 
Whalley,  and  buried  himself  under  an  as 
sumed  name  among  the  Massachusetts 
colonists.  And  there  are  those  who  say 
that  he  was  the  sturdiest  among  the  deter 
mined  men  of  the  new  country,  and  a  mar 
velous  fighter,  who  proved  his  mettle  and 
experience  in  the  dark  hours  of  the  Indian 
wars  and  massacres;  that  after  he  had 
grown  old  in  service  and  in  the  honor  and 
esteem  of  his  neighbors,  he  assumed  his 
former  name  and  lived  thereafter  in  peace 
and  prosperity,  as  mighty  for  his  counsel 
and  wisdom  as  for  his  physical  prowess. 

Whatever  of  truth  may  have  been  in 
these  stories,  they  are  not  mentioned  in  the 
family  records  compiled  by  the  Reverend 
Jabez  Ballinger,  who  occupied  the  old  par 
sonage  forty  years  later,  and  who  speaks 
modestly  and  joyfully  of  his  descent  from 
ii 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

"good  old  Puritan  stock."  Perhaps  it  was 
this  very  modesty  that  silenced  the  Rever 
end  Jabez,  for  to  the  good  man  it  might 
savor  of  boastfulness  that  he  should  parade 
the  military  exploits  of  his  ancestors,  and 
dwell  with  satisfaction  on  the  accomplish 
ment  of  the  sword  and  deeds  of  worldly 
cunning.  So  he  scrupulously  contented 
himself  with  fighting  the  Devil  as  valorously 
as  ever  the  warlike  Giles  assailed  the  forces 
of  the  English  king,  bequeathing  the  eter 
nal  conflict  to  his  son,  the  Reverend  Thad- 
deus  Ballinger,  who  in  turn  and  the  fulness 
of  time  handed  the  spiritual  sword  and 
buckler  to  the  Reverend  Jacob  Ballinger  in 
direct  family  descent. 

Now,  the  Ballingers,  in  the  exercise  of 
their  duties  in  the  colony  ministry,  did  not 
find  time  hanging  oppressively  on  their 
hands,  yet  with  all  their  obligations,  spirit 
ual  and  social,  domestic  and  parochial, 
they  were  a  reading  clan,  a  family  of  biblio 
philes,  as  the  word  with  its  somewhat  re 
stricted  opportunities  was  understood  a 
century  ago.  But  as  a  line  of  clergymen 

12 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

in  a  sequestered  village,  with  constantly 
increasing  offices  of  an  arduous  and  varied 
type,  they  laid  the  foundations  of  an  impor 
tant  library,  as  it  is  now  regarded,  with 
more  attention  to  godly  instruction  and 
pious  beneficence  than  to  allurement.  The 
old  bookcase,  which  stood  stern  and  rigid 
in  the  corner,  contained  such  notable  aids 
to  mental  advancement  as  Law's  "Serious 
Call  to  a  Devout  and  Holy  Life,"  Massil- 
lon's  "Sermons,"  Dwight's  "Theology," 
Faber's  "View  of  the  Prophecies,"  and 
Vincent's  "Explicatory  Catechism." 
Added  to  these  were  several  copies  of  the 
holy  scriptures  in  microscopic  print,  an 
almost  illegible  presentation  of  "The  Pil 
grim's  Progress,"  and  in  time,  though  not 
without  certain  troublous  misgivings,  so 
secular  and  dangerous  a  work  as  "The 
British  Spy."  These  were  the  literary 
temptations  on  which  the  wise  and  minis 
terial  Ballingers  relied  to  woo  their  off 
spring  from  a  pernicious  excess  of  youthful 
sports  and  pleasures;  and  coupled  with 
a  judicious  and  emphatic  use  of  the  rod, 
13 


The  Bondage  of  Ealllnger 

this  library  went  far  in  impressing  upon  the 
Ballinger  tribe  as  it  grew  to  manhood  and 
womanhood  the  beauties  and  felicity  of  a 
home  beyond  the  skies. 

Whether  any  or  all  of  these  excellent 
treatises  gave  rise  in  Theophilus  Ballinger 
to  a  restless  and  roving  spirit  cannot  be 
satisfactorily  established,  yet  it  is  true  that 
as  soon  as  possible,  and  greatly  to  the 
grief  and  scandal  of  the  Reverend  Jacob, 
he  broke  away  from  such  excellent  environ 
ment  and  started  out  to  " teach  school"  on 
his  own  responsibility.  Excellent  teacher 
though  he  is  conceded  to  have  been,  the 
nomadic  impulse  kept  him  moving  up  and 
down  the  New  England  coast  until  he 
could  fairly  say  that  he  had  taught  in  every 
district  from  Portland  to  the  tip  of  Cape 
Cod.  The  love  of  reading  and  of  books 
had  come  down  from  the  old  minister  to 
the  school-teacher,  just  as  it  was  destined 
to  influence  the  life  of  the  grandson,  and 
so  with  all  the  wanderings  and  the  changes 
the  little  library  grew  until  it  had  reached 
most  respectable  dimensions,  and  was  fast 
H 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

becoming  a  source  of  perplexity  when  the 
fever  of  moving  returned  and  the  order  to 
strike  camp  was  issued. 

Fortunately  or  unfortunately,  as  the  mat 
ter  may  be  considered,  the  literary  taste  of 
the  schoolmaster  was  far  more  catholic 
than  that  of  any  of  his  forbears,  and  while, 
as  every  reading  person  should,  he  con 
ceded  the  literary  qualities  of  the  minis 
terial  selections,  and  warmly  defended  the 
truth  and  virtue  of  their  teachings,  he  did 
not  scruple  to  go  beyond  their  limitations, 
even  adding  such  worldly  books  as  would 
have  brought  his  father  and  grandfather 
before  the  church  tribunal.  The  school 
master  had  also  a  certain  sort  of  canniness 
in  his  dealings  with  books,  and  would  dis 
course  at  great  length  to  his  son  Thomas  in 
appreciation  of  the  value  of  an  autograph 
or  inscribed  sentiment  in  a  good  book. 
And  having  enlarged  with  enthusiasm  on 
the  virtue  of  the  reading  habit,  he  would 
usually  conclude  with  some  such  whole 
some  admonition  as  this: 

"Thomas,  in  the  general  reckoning,  you 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

have  fifty  good  years  ahead  of  you. 
Think  of  that,  my  boy!  Fifty  glorious 
years  for  collecting  and  reading  books! 
Now  is  the  time  to  begin  the  accumulation 
of  those  delights  which  will  be  a  blessing 
to  your  fading  days  and  a  never-failing 
source  of  gratification  as  a  connecting  link 
with  the  past.  But  in  all  your  transac 
tions,  my  son,  remember  this:  never,  even 
for  the  sake  of  financial  profit  later  in  life, 
lumber  up  your  shelves  with  what  is  trashy 
and  worthless.  Never  wittingly  buy  an 
inferior  book.  But  when  a  poet,  or  a  his 
torian,  or  a  story-writer,  or  an  essayist  of 
your  acquaintance,  puts  forth  a  venture 
well  worth  the  while,  approach  him  with 
modesty  and  deference,  and  ask  him  to  be 
so  good  as  to  bring  it  a  little  nearer  home 
to  you  by  writing  his  name,  with  possibly 
a  fitting  sentiment,  on  the  fly-leaf.  Then 
twenty,  thirty,  even  forty  years  hence, 
perhaps  long  after  he  has  gone  to  rest,  full 
of  honor  and  good  works,  that  book,  with 
its  mute  testimony  of  friendship,  will  bring 
you  such  happiness  and  pleasant  thoughts 

16 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

as  your  present  youth  cannot  conceive. 
Incidentally,  my  son — though  this  is  the 
very  last  and  most  unworthy  consideration 
— that  faded  first  edition,  with  its  inscrip 
tion  and  autograph,  may  prove  a  very 
present  help  in  time  of  trouble. '  * 

To  this  paternal  admonition  young 
Thomas  listened  with  respectful  attention 
and  with  evidence  of  shrewd  understand 
ing,  and  as  he  was  a  seriously  minded 
youth,  with  an  inherited  liking  for  books 
and  a  proper  appreciation  of  a  great  man, 
he  took  full  advantage  of  the  opportunities 
which  the  family  wanderings  presented,  and 
cultivated  literature  in  the  flesh  as  well  as 
in  the  spirit,  and  by  candle-light.  So  it 
came  about  that  long  before  the  school 
master  yielded  to  the  rigors  of  the  New 
England  climate,  Thomas  had  built  up  a 
distinguished  patronage  of  his  own  and  had 
agreeably  profited  by  the  counsels  of  his 
wise  father.  In  this  he  was  aided  by  the 
democratic  spirit  of  the  time  and  the  small- 
ness  of  the  communities,  to  say  nothing  of 
a  quiet  and  not  disagreeable  persistence, 
17 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

which  amused  the  celebrities  with  whom  he 
came  in  contact.  He  could  say  with  truth 
as  well  as  pride  that  he  had  walked  and 
talked  with  Mr.  Emerson — rather  timidly 
perhaps — and  had  assisted  that  great  man 
in  minor  duties  of  a  domestic  nature.  He 
had  plucked  the  hem  of  Miss  Fuller's 
gown,  and  on  more  than  one  occasion  had 
paid  himself  the  compliment  of  carrying 
her  parcels.  For  such  distinguished  ser 
vices  he  had  several  pages  of  manuscript, 
duly  signed,  to  show.  He  had  permitted 
Mr.  Thoreau  to  accept  him  as  a  companion 
on  certain  notable  excursions,  and  had  dis 
cussed  with  him  various  topics  of  natural 
history.  He  had  formed  the  acquaintance 
of  Mr.  Channing,  with  difficulty,  but  con 
trived  to  profit  by  such  association  in  the 
customary  channels.  He  had  tapped 
maple-trees  with  Mr.  Alcott,  and  indulged 
in  polite  but  fragmentary  discourse  with  the 
abstracted  Mr.  Hawthorne  through  the 
picket  fence.  He  had  stood  on  the  bridge, 
and  at  sundry  other  places,  with  Mr.  Long 
fellow,  run  on  occasional  errands  for  Mr. 
18 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

Lowell,  and  acquired  an  almost  convivial 
familiarity  with  Dr.  Holmes.  He  knew 
the  gentle  Mr.  Whittier  and  loved  him, 
was  the  devoted  boyish  champion  of  Lucy 
Larcom,  and  would  have  buffeted  the 
waves  far  across  to  the  Isles  of  Shoals  had 
it  been  necessary  in  order  to  reach  Celia 
Thaxter. 

In  all  these  youthful  adventures  he  never 
forgot  the  paternal  advice,  and  as  he  was 
a  bright-faced  boy,  with  an  alert  mind,  and 
a  shrewd  but  respectful  insistence,  he  soon 
added  materially  to  his  library  and  to  the 
value  of  his  possessions.  The  young  col 
lector  was  happily  not  content  with  the 
mere  pleasure  of  acquisition,  but  eagerly 
devoured  every  book  that  came  into  his 
possession  with  an  interest  considerably 
sharpened  by  his  personal  acquaintance 
with  its  author. .  In  this  he  soon  verified 
the  predictions  of  the  father.  But  if 
Thomas  Ballinger  was  a  student,  he  gave 
very  little  indication  of  the  practical  bene 
fit  of  his  reading,  for  in  all  the  busy  circle 
of  shrewd,  restless,  energetic  inhabitants 
19 


The  Bondage  of  Ealllnger 

of  the  New  England  village,  none  was  so 
incapable  of  action  as  the  schoolmaster's 
son.  If  sent  on  an  errand,  he  might  be 
found  thirty  minutes  later  curled  up  in  a 
corner  of  the  fence,  reading  the  book  he 
surreptitiously  carried  in  his  pocket  or  in 
side  his  shirt.  If  sent  to  drive  home  the 
cow,  the  cow,  weary  of  waiting,  came 
home  without  him.  Had  he  been  told  to 
run  for  the  doctor  he  would  have  consid 
ered  his  mission  accomplished  if  he  ran 
toward  the  doctor's.  Any  incidental  diver 
sion  or  distraction  of  a  literary  nature  was 
enough  to  obliterate  the  object  in  view. 
The  schoolmaster  himself  was  obliged  to 
confess  that,  so  far  as  indications  served, 
Thomas  was  cut  out  for  a  failure,  while  the 
townspeople  ranked  him  in  the  list  of  im 
possibilities,  and  held  him  up  to  their  own 
children  as  a  terrifying  example  of  shift- 
lessness. 

As  the  smallness  of  the  family  purse  de 
manded  that  there  should  be  no  gentleman 
boarder  in  the  household,  Master  Tom 
was  informed  that  he  was  now  at  an  age 

20 


The  Bondage  of  Bal/mger 

when  he  must  contribute  to  the  general 
fund,  and  it  was  furthermore  hinted  that 
he  might  choose  among  the  various  means 
of  livelihood  in  the  village.  And  as  any 
kind  of  hard  manual  labor  was  repugnant 
to  his  disposition,  he  expressed  an  unwilling 
ness  to  decide  so  important  a  question  for 
himself;  accordingly  he  was  apprenticed  to 
the  blacksmith,  and  he  lasted  two  days. 
In  turn,  and  with  amazing  celerity,  he  was 
unloaded  on  the  apothecary,  the  grocer, 
the  carpenter,  the  wheelwright,  and  every 
trade  functionary  in  the  township,  but  in 
each  case  the  beneficiary  reported  with 
equal  promptness  that  he  "guessed  Tom 
'd  better  try  suthin'  else."  Then  in  a 
glimmer  of  hope  that  he  might  be  able  to 
impart  to  others  some  of  the  book  knowl 
edge  he  appeared  to  be  constantly  acquir 
ing,  the  schoolmaster  procured  his  appoint 
ment  to  the  pedagogue's  chair  in  a  district 
school.  But  the  scholars  soon  perceived 
his  weakness,  and  cunningly  drawing  him 
into  controversies  on  literary  topics,  so  dis 
posed  of  the  school  hours  that  the  curricu- 

21 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

lum  was  practically  neglected.  And  one 
day,  when  he  had  failed  to  report  at  nine 
o'clock,  and  the  hours  crept  on  to  ten,  and 
then  to  eleven,  two  of  the  older  scholars 
were  sent  to  investigate,  and  they  found 
Master  Tom  comfortably  propped  up  in  bed, 
his  nose  dipping  into  a  book  and  his  mind 
revelling  in  flights  wholly  unconnected 
with  his  paid  professional  duties.  This 
was  too  much  for  the  board  of  trustees 
sitting  on  Tom  as  a  delinquent,  and  he  was 
dismissed  with  as  much  disgrace  as  so  pre 
occupied  a  culprit  could  take  upon  himself. 
So  in  desperation  the  father  laid  the  case 
before  the  young  man,  reviewed  the  cir 
cumstances  leading  up  to  the  present  prob 
lem,  and  hinted  with  delicate  irony  that  if 
he  had  any  preference  in  the  way  of  a  vo 
cation  it  would  simplify  matters  amazingly 
to  mention  it.  Young  Thomas  replied 
with  much  sincerity  of  feeling.  He  admit 
ted  his  shortcomings  with  winning  candor 
and  freely  attested  the  efforts  that  had  been 
made  in  his  behalf.  He  confessed  that  a 
studious  life  in  his  quiet  home  was  very 

22 


The  Bondage  of  Bal/mger 

much  to  his  taste,  and  that  he  could  live  on 
indefinitely  without  desiring  to  change  it, 
but  since  that  was  impossible  under  exist 
ing  conditions,  and  since  it  had  been  de 
clared  necessary  that  he  should  take  up  the 
burdens  of  human  existence,  he  believed 
that  the  lot  of  a  printer  would  present  the 
fewest  serious  obstacles.  Whereupon  the 
father,  overjoyed  by  any  suggestion,  and 
dazzled  by  this  ray  of  encouragement,  sent 
him  off  to  Boston  to  the  printing-shop  of 
an  old  friend. 

The  unexpected  happened  when  Tom 
took  handily  to  his  trade,  and  in  a  short 
time  won  the  praise  of  his  master,  who  had 
accepted  him  with  misgivings  through  the 
rumors  of  early  experiences  and  failures, 
for  it  seemed  to  the  youth  that  there  was 
a  close,  even  holy,  association  of  his  books 
with  the  types  he  fingered  so  deftly,  and 
with  every  thousand  ems  he  would  think, 
not  of  the  commercial  rate  of  wages,  but 
of  the  time  when  perhaps  a  whole  book 
might  be  set  up  by  his  hand,  a  book  that 
he  might  love  and  cherish  and  point  to  as, 
23 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

in  a  way,  his  contribution  to  lasting  litera 
ture.  Of  these  things  he  ventured  at  times 
to  speak  to  the  old  printer,  and  that  saga 
cious  task-master  humored  his  fancy,  and 
beguiled  him  with  airy  tales  of  the  tre 
mendous  possibilities  of  his  art,  so  that 
Tom  was  spurred  on  to  work  the  more 
diligently  and  to  study  the  forms  and  de 
vices  of  printing  more  closely.  However, 
as  his  earnings  went  systematically  toward 
the  purchase  of  more  books,  and  as  he  was 
consequently  in  arrears  in  the  disposition 
of  numerous  bills  for  food,  clothes,  and 
other  luxuries,  demanded  even  by  incipient 
bibliomania,  his  family  and  village  friends 
continued  to  shake  their  heads  ominously 
and  reaffirm  their  former  fears. 

It  is  the  generous  dispensation  of  Provi 
dence  that,  whatever  our  failings,  and  how 
ever  we  may  grieve  and  disappoint  those 
who  are  near  to  us  and  who  are  ambitious 
for  our  welfare  and  success,  there  is  always 
one  who  believes  in  us,  whose  faith  en 
dures  through  all  trials,  and  whose  confi 
dence  is  preserved  in  every  series  of  disas- 
24 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

ters.  And  this  reservation  certainly  could 
not  fail  when  a  handsome  young  fellow  is 
the  illustration  in  point,  and  when  memo 
ries  of  chivalrous  gentleness  are  constantly 
arising  to  combat  the  tongues  of  prejudice. 
In  the  early  school-days,  in  the  crab-apple 
time  of  youth,  a  little  girl  had  peeped 
shyly  at  Tom  from  the  benches  just  across 
the  aisle — a  little  girl  in  a  gray  pinafore 
and  white  apron,  a  grave  little  girl  with  big 
eyes  and  pink  cheeks  and  a  funny  little 
nose,  and  with  two  severe  braids  of  chest 
nut  hair  hanging  stiffly  down  her  back. 
And  when  the  boys  tormented  her,  as 
boys  will,  and  laughed  at  the  garb  of  her 
faith,  and  at  her  "thee"  and  "thou,"  Tom 
was  her  champion  and  defender.  The 
chivalry  that  was  in  the  boy  was  perhaps 
increased  by  the  stories  his  father  had  told 
and  read  to  him,  and  whenever  he  bore 
down  to  rescue  the  little  maid  from  her 
tormentors,  he  fancied  that  she  was  a  prin 
cess  in  distress  and  he  her  sworn  knight. 
He  would  be  Launcelot  or  Roland  or  Ivan- 
hoe,  as  his  humor  directed,  and  he  con- 
25 


The  Bondage  of  Ballmger 

structed  a  wonderful  cave  to  which  he 
carried  her  after  a  royal  battle,  although 
she  knew  nothing  either  of  his  conceit  or 
of  his  names,  and  only  looked  gratefully 
and  wonderingly  at  him  with  her  big  eyes, 
and  believed  him  to  be  the  most  valiant 
and  the  most  remarkable  of  all  small  boys. 
When  they  went  home  together  in  the  sun 
light  of  the  afternoon,  they  raced  down  the 
long  lane  that  led  from  the  school-house, 
and  stopped  to  watch  the  shiners  in  the 
brook  or  hunt  for  luck  emblems  in  the 
clover  patch.  And  as  the  years  went  by, 
and  the  little  girl's  skirts  grew  longer,  as 
her  hair  apparently  grew  shorter,  while  the 
ridiculous  small  nose  began  to  assume  the 
proportions  intended  by  nature,  the  tint 
deepened  in  her  cheeks  when  Tom's  name 
was  mentioned,  and  her  childish  fancy  was 
more  than  ever  her  hero  and  ideal. 

If  Tom  came  home  at  Thanksgiving,  or 
during  the  Christmas  holidays,  or  for  an 
occasional  Sunday,  he  divided  his  time  im 
partially  between  the  little  cottage  at  the 
top  of  the  hill  and  Ephraim  Playf air's  more 
26 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

pretentious  home  in  the  outskirts  of  the 
village.  And  if  sweet  Hannah  Playf air's 
eyes  were  a  little  brighter  at  these  times, 
and  if  smiles  played  more  frequently  around 
her  demure  mouth  and  lighted  up  her  grave 
face,  only  the  rascal  Tom  knew  the  secret. 
For  Friend  Ephraim,  though  a  just  man, 
was  stern  and  unyielding,  and  looked  with 
little  favor  on  the  visits  of  the  youth  not  of 
his  faith  and  giving  no  promise  of  a  profit 
able  career.  Long  and  solemnly  he  dis 
coursed  to  Hannah  on  the  evils  of  unguarded 
associations,  and  bade  her  steel  herself 
against  the  impulsive  dictates  of  a  foolish 
heart.  And  Hannah  listened  and  sighed 
and  fought  against  nature  as  her  father 
commanded.  Yet  Tom  was  no  less  elo 
quent  and  persuasive  in  his  own  way  and 
pleaded  his  cause  so  successfully  that  the 
words  of  Ephraim  were  forgotten  in  the 
greater  joy  and  hope;  so  these  two  kept 
their  own  counsel  and  lived  their  love  life 
in  themselves,  though  what  plans  they 
made,  or  what  plots  they  devised,  it  would 
be  an  insult  to  true  love  to  detail. 
27 


"The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

But  one  night — and  all  the  village  knew 
that  Tom  was  going  back  to  the  city  on 
the  late  train — little  Hannah  was  graver 
than  usual,  and  when  at  nine  o'clock  her 
father  shut  the  Bible  before  the  evening 
prayer,  she  came  and  knelt  at  his  side,  and 
put  her  head  on  his  shoulder.  And  after 
prayer  she  restrained  him,  and  threw  her 
arms  about  his  neck,  and  pressed  her  cheek 
to  his,  and  smoothed  his  silvery  hair,  and 
petted  him,  while  the  tears  stood  in  her 
eyes  and  her  voice  trembled  as  she  spoke. 
So  Ephraim  went  to  bed  little  wondering, 
for  he  was  a  dull  man  as  well  as  a  just  and 
stern  and  unyielding,  and  not  until  morning 
did  the  light  break  in  upon  him,  when 
Hannah  did  not  respond  to  his  call,  and 
when  investigation  showed  her  room  empty, 
her  bed  undisturbed,  and  a  letter  addressed 
"To  Father"  pinned  on  the  old-fashioned 
mirror.  Ephraim  read  it  laboriously: 

Honoured  Sir: 

If  I  have  gone  contrary  to  thy  wishes,  and  in  for- 

getfulness  of  thy  great  goodness,  I  pray  thee  to  think 

kindly  of  thy  little  Hannah  and  to  remember  that  she 

loves  thee  now  as  always.     By  the  time  that  thee 

28 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

has  read  this  letter  I  shall  be  married  to  Thomas, 
who  truly  loves  thee  and  would  be  an  affectionate 
and  dutiful  son.  If  we  may  return  to  ask  thy  for 
giveness,  and  to  implore  thy  blessing,  let  us  know 
this  proof  of  thy  kindness.  But  if  the  great  sorrow 
comes  to  my  happiness  that  we  may  not  be  forgiven, 
and  that  thy  heart  is  hard  against  thy  little  daughter, 
give  me  leave  to  keep  on  loving  thee  and  blessing 
thee  for  thy  never-failing  love  and  tenderness. 
I  am,  honoured  sir,  so  long  as  life  shall  last, 
Thy  true  and  devoted  daughter, 

HANNAH. 

Then  Ephraim  Playfair,  a  dull  man,  and 
a  stern  but  just  man,  felt  a  little  tugging 
at  his  heart,  and  a  choking  in  the  throat, 
and  while  the  impulse  was  yet  on  him  he 
sat  down  and  wrote  simply:  "Thee  may 
return  to  thy  father."  So  Hannah  came 
back  to  the  village,  with  its  quiet  streets  of 
shade  elms  and  its  routine  of  droning  life 
she  had  for  the  first  time  put  behind  her, 
and  it  seemed  to  her  as  if  she  had  lived 
many  years  in  the  few  hours  that  had 
passed  since  Thomas  came  and  took  her 
away  to  the  bustle  and  roar  of  the  strange 
life.  She  went  on  down  the  street  to  the 
old  house  with  the  wide  porch,  where 
29 


The  Bondage  of  Ealllnger 

Ephraim  Playfair  sat  with  her  letter  in  his 
hand.  Her  heart  smote  her  as  she  saw 
him,  but  she  ran  quickly  up  to  him,  with 
her  cheeks  burning  and  a  half-merry  look 
in  her  eyes,  and  drew  his  face  down  to 
hers  and  kissed  him.  He  said  gravely: 

"Thee  acted  hastily,  Hannah." 

"Nay,  father, ' '  replied  the  girl,  roguishly, 
"how  could  one  whom  thee  has  trained 
act  hastily?  We  acted  only  after  much 
consideration  and  argument." 

"Still  I  think,"  went  on  the  old  man, 
ignoring  the  correction,  "that  thee  will  live 
to  repent  thy  choice,  for  Thomas  is  but  an 
ill  mate  for  any  woman.  Thee  has  taken 
him  for  better  or  worse,  for  richer  or 
poorer,  and  I  fear  thee  will  find  thy  lot 
both  worse  and  poorer. ' ' 

But  little  Hannah  only  kissed  the  old 
man  more  tenderly,  and  looking  shyly  into 
his  face,  said  softly,  "Then,  father,  I  must 
only  endure  the  more  patiently  my  fate  and 
remember  the  good  words  thee  has  taught 
me  from  my  youth  up,  'Whatsoever  thy 
hand  findeth  to  do,  do  it  with  thy  might,'  " 
30 


THOMAS  BALLINGER  began  his 
honeymoon  characteristically.  In 
the  flush  of  early  love  and  the  excitement 
of  approaching  marriage  he  had  managed 
to  save  money  sufficient  to  pay  incidental 
wedding  expenses  and  to  allow  for  a  bridal 
trip  not  to  exceed  a  fortnight,  an  evidence 
of  economy  and  thrift  of  which  he  was  duly 
proud,  and  at  which  everybody  wondered. 
In  the  late  hours  of  the  morning,  after  the 
ceremony  at  the  clergyman's  house,  and  a 
reasonably  sumptuous  breakfast  at  a  con 
venient  restaurant,  Thomas  had  sallied 
forth  to  procure  the  railway  tickets  and  to 
make  such  other  arrangements  as  were 
necessary  in  the  absence  of  a  next  friend. 
It  was  his  evil  genius,  that  malevolent 
spirit  which  rarely  left  him,  that  led  him 
down  a  street  and  past  a  house  where  a 
conspicuous  sign  announced  a  book  auction. 
Thomas  hesitated,  and  was  lost.  He  ran 
his  hand  down  in  his  pocket,  and  thus  com 
muned  with  the  evil  spirit: 
31 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

"Have  I  not  plenty  of  time  before  pro 
ceeding  to  the  ticket  office?  Can  any  harm 
result  from  just  dropping  in  to  see  who  is 
there  and  what  is  going  on?  Am  I  not  a 
married  man,  with  a  married  man's  respon 
sibilities,  and  has  not  my  life  of  two 
months  fully  demonstrated  that  I  am  thor 
oughly  emancipated  from  the  thralldom  of 
bibliomania?  It  would  be  an  unpardonable 
sign  of  weakness  to  confess  that  I  am  not 
brave  enough  to  show  my  hearty  contempt 
for  the  follies  of  which  I  have  been  so  long 
guilty.  I  will  approach  without  fear.  I 
will  walk  through  the  rooms  that  those  of 
my  acquaintance  who  happen  to  be  there 
may  see  how  little  these  temptations  affect 
me." 

Thomas  confessed  afterward  that  he  had 
a  very  hazy  idea  of  what  happened  and 
how  it  came  about.  He  remembered  tell 
ing  the  auctioneer  to  send  the  books  to  his 
boarding-house,  giving  a  due-bill  for  several 
dollars  in  addition  to  all  the  money  in  his 
wallet,  and  walking  back  to  his  bride,  very 
much  bewildered  and  very  much  ashamed. 
32 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

But  Hannah  took  the  matter  philosophically 
and  bravely.  "Thee  knows,  Thomas," 
she  said,  "that  the  journey  was  but  a 
foolish  one,  and  that  it  is  much  better  that 
we  should  begin  our  life  with  work  and 
not  with  play.  And  doubtless  thee  will  need 
the  books  in  thy  business,  dear,  and  they 
will  be  pleasant  to  look  at  in  after  years, 
when  we  reflect  that  they  saved  us  from 
such  silly  extravagance  and  useless  travel. 
Surely  it  was  thy  good  angel,  Thomas, 
and  not  thy  evil  genius  as  thee  has  said. ' ' 

Ah,  sweet,  beguiling,  thoughtless  little 
Hannah!  How  could  you  know  what 
trouble  you  were  storing  up,  and  what  a 
floodgate  of  unhappy  desire  and  evil  yearn 
ing  you  were  opening?  How  could  you 
guess  that  the  same  little  imp  of  acquisi 
tion  your  gentleness  forgave  would  become 
a  mighty  monster  to  follow  and  plague  you 
through  life? 

So  Thomas  went  humbly  back  to   his 

trade  and  Hannah  departed  to  make  the 

peace  with  Ephraim  Playfair.     And  when 

she  returned  they  lived  together  in  happi- 

33 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

ness  and  comfort,  for  Thomas  was  a  clever 
and  a  rapid  workman,  and  made  great 
wages  for  those  days.  But  the  restless 
blood  of  his  father  was  in  his  veins,  and 
many  times  he  sighed  for  the  outside  world 
he  had  encountered  only  in  his  books,  and 
had  pictured  so  fondly  in  his  fancy.  And 
one  day,  when  the  longing  was  strong 
within  him,  he  came  back  suddenly  from 
the  office  and  said,  "Come,  Hannah,  I 
must  take  thee  on  thy  wedding  journey.'* 
Thomas  loved  the  quaint,  solemn 
speech  of  the  Quakers,  and  often  spoke  to 
his  wife  in  the  manner  of  her  father's 
house.  And  Hannah,  reassured  by  his 
smile  and  cheerfulness,  though  divining 
that  a  great  change  was  coming  into  their 
life,  smiled  back  at  him,  and  holding  up 
her  fingers  playfully  to  mark  the  signs  of 
quotation,  answered,  "Whither  thou  goest 
I  will  go." 

To  so  capable  a  printer  and  steady  a 

workman  as  Thomas  it  mattered  little  in 

what  city  he  found  his  occupation,  and  in 

New  York  he  took  up  his  trade  as  easily 

34 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

as  he  had  laid  it  down  in  Boston.  The 
fascinations  of  the  larger  town  appealed  to 
the  young  wife,  and  often,  when  Thomas's 
work  was  done,  they  would  roam  together 
up  and  down  the  streets,  looking  into  the 
gay  windows  and  planning  how  they  might 
have  a  home  and  how  they  should  enrich 
and  beautify  it.  Then  the  tempter,  never 
far  from  Thomas's  side,  would  beset  him 
with  all  the  cunning  of  his  devilish  art,  and 
the  poor  printer  would  weakly  steal  away 
by  himself,  and  haunt  the  old  bookshops, 
and  many  a  dollar  solemnly  pledged  to  the 
coming  home  found  its  way  into  the  book 
seller's  till.  Already  a  feeling  of  dread 
had  taken  possession  of  the  thrifty  little 
wife,  and  with  each  fresh  purchase  of 
books  her  heart  would  leap  and  words 
of  reproach  would  come  to  her  lips.  And 
then  she  would  remember  how  kind  and 
gentle  was  Thomas,  and  her  mind  would 
go  back  swiftly  to  the  old  days  when  they 
were  children,  and  to  the  time  when  he 
shielded  her  from  all  the  simple  griefs  of 
childhood,  and  the  gratitude  for  the  past 
35 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

and  the  love  of  the  present  drove  away  all 
remonstrance  and  killed  the  words  that 
rose  in  reproof. 

It  pleased  her,  even  in  moments  of  lone 
liness  and  fear,  to  know  that  Thomas  had 
gained  a  reputation  and  a  standing  among 
wise  men  of  books  and  letters;  that  he  was 
sought  out  for  the  value  of  his  opinions  and 
for  the  extent  of  his  knowledge;  and  when 
poets  and  romancists  came  to  their  rooms 
to  talk  with  Thomas  of  his  possessions,  and 
to  speak  to  him  of  the  giants  he  had  met  in 
boyhood,  her  foolish  little  heart  would  swell 
with  rapture,  and  she  would  wonder  how 
so  learned  and  great  a  man  could  have 
been  attracted  to  so  weak  and  insignificant 
a  woman.  Thomas  Ballinger  was  not  the 
first  hero  in  this  pleasant  humbug  of  a 
world  who  has  blossomed  into  greatness 
through  the  memory  of  some  childish 
chivalrous  deed  or  the  magnified  recollec 
tion  of  a  sympathetic  word.  And,  hap 
lessly,  all  heroes,  wife-made,  do  not  have 
his  gentleness  and  amiability  to  speak  in 
extenuation  of  the  delusion. 
36 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

Again  the  restlessness  of  spirit  stirred 
Thomas,  and  again  he  wearied  of  his  en 
vironment,  and  the  round  of  drudging 
duties.  He  said  to  Hannah:  "Our  life  is 
monotonous  and  changeless,  and  we  have 
no  chance  to  know  the  world  that  is  so 
beautiful.  We  are  wasting  ourselves  and 
our  opportunities.  The  city  is  so  great, 
so  sordid,  so  given  over  to  the  roar  of 
commerce  and  the  pursuit  of  money,  that 
every  noble  impulse  is  crushed  and  every 
better  feeling  is  repressed.'*  He  took 
Hannah's  hand,  just  as  he  had  taken  it  in 
the  happy  days  of  early  love,  and  he  smiled 
that  same  old  persuasive,  irresistible  smile 
as  he  added:  "Come,  Hannah,  let  us  re 
new  our  wedding  journey.  Thee  will  find 
how  much  of  the  old  lover  is  left  in  me. 
Let  us  go  to  the  South,  where  we  can  be 
young  and  foolish  once  more,  where  every 
thing  is  new  and  everybody  is  strange,  and 
where  sweethearts,  like  thee  and  me, 
Hannah,  find  fresh  inspiration  for  their 
love." 

Hannah  listened  rapturously,  for  she  was 
37 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

still  young  and  foolish,  and  she  believed  in 
Thomas  and  trusted  in  his  great  wisdom. 
And  as  the  tears  came  to  her  eyes  at  the 
gentleness  of  his  voice  and  the  reminder  of 
the  old  days  she  answered:  "Let  us  go, 
Thomas" — and  then,  with  a  little  blush  at 
her  own  boldness — "let  us  go  where  there 
are  no  book-stores,  dear. ' ' 

So  they  journeyed  southward,  lingering 
now  a  week,  now  a  month,  in  cities  and 
towns,  while  Thomas,  pursuing  his  trade, 
made  money  necessary  not  only  for  their 
expenses,  but  for  the  accumulation  of  litera 
ture.  The  beginning  of  the  second  winter 
found  them  in  the  loveliest  of  spots,  the 
land  of  perpetual  summer,  a  fair  town, 
where  the  people  lived  in  the  laziness  of 
dreamland,  a  land  green  with  the  palmetto 
and  the  magnolia,  where  the  birds  sang  all 
the  year,  the  roses  bloomed  perpetually, 
and  the  breezes  languidly  waved  the  moss 
on  the  old  trees  and  barely  stirred  the  rip 
ple  of  the  sparkling  river.  Here  Thomas 
worked  diligently  and  saved  sums  of  money 
for  the  future,  and  here  Hannah  found  the 
33 


The  Bondage  of  Balltnger 

realization  of  her  dreams  of  a  honeymoon 
in  the  hours  they  spent  together.  It 
seemed  to  her  that  they  had  come  at  last 
into  life  and  happiness  that  must  never 
end,  and  great  was  her  sorrow  when  one 
night,  wandering  home  along  the  river- 
bank,  Thomas  said: 

"Hannah,  I  have  bought  the  tickets,  we 
must  go  to-morrow.  * ' 

She  clutched  his  arm  nervously  as  she 
asked:  "Why  must  we  go  to-morrow,  or 
the  next  day?  Where  can  we  find  so 
beautiful  a  home  as  this?  We  left  behind 
us  the  ice  and  snow  I  dreaded,  and  the 
great  cities  that  so  displeased  thee,  and 
we  have  come  here  to  find  everything  that 
speaks  for  the  life  we  love.  Why  must 
we  go?'* 

Thomas  turned  away  his  head  and  did 
not  answer.  She  touched  his  arm  again, 
and  said,  "Have  we  not  been  very  happy, 
dear?" 

"Yes,  very  happy,  but — " 

"There  is  no  'but'  in  my  happiness, 
Thomas." 

39 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

"I  was  going  to  say,  Hannah,  that  you 
do  not  understand.  In  fact,  you  see — you 
know — I  was  going  to  say— 

"Well,  Thomas?" 

He  laughed,  guiltily.  Then  he  drew 
her  toward  him  and  kissed  her.  ' '  I  know 
I  am  asking  thee  to  make  a  great  sacri 
fice,  ' '  he  went  on,  falling  into  the  speech 
she  loved,  "but  if  thee  only  knew  how  I 
have  suffered  here,  thee  would  not  blame 
me,  Hannah." 

"Suffered,  Thomas?" 

"Yes,  suffered,  dear  heart.  Has  thee 
not  seen  how  bitterly  I  have  been  disap 
pointed,  and  how  all  my  expectations  have 
been  deceived?" 

She  looked  up  at  him  wonderingly. 
"Thee  has  been  disappointed?  Am  I  not 
as  much  to  thee — 

At  this  he  laughed  again.  "Thee  is 
and  has  been  everything  to  me,  foolish 
child,  and  without  thee  I  should  have  died 
of  desperation,  but  the  truth  is — " 

"Well,  Thomas?" 

"The  truth  is,"  he  went  on,  forcing  out 
4o 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

the  words,  "there  is  not  a  decent  book-store 
in  the  county,  or  for  that  matter,  in  the 
country. ' ' 

The  tired  look  crept  back  into  the  pa 
tient  eyes,  and  a  sigh  came  up  from  the 
anxious  heart  as  little  Hannah  clung  a 
little  closer  to  her  husband. 

"Let  us  go  where  thee  will,  dear/' 
Westward  they  went,  on  through  the 
pleasant  Southland,  with  its  wealth  of  foli 
age  and  blossoms,  its  waving  palms  and 
bewildering  masses  of  flowers,  ever  beckon 
ing  to  them  and  inviting  them  to  stay. 
And  Hannah  would  have  remained,  for  she 
loved  the  gentle  climate  and  the  profusion 
of  nature,  and  the  kindly  people  of  soft 
speech  and  gracious  manner,  but  the  rest 
lessness  of  a  feverish  spirit  was  in  Thomas, 
and  he  loitered  only  until  he  had  acquired 
the  means  of  further  travel.  And  so  they 
wandered  until  they  came  to  the  great 
river  which  divides  the  continent.  And 
lingering  a  space  as  emergency  demanded 
they  journeyed  on  where  the  mountains 
rise  thousands  of  feet  above  the  plains  and 
41 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

wear  eternal  snow  on  their  peaks.  And 
then  across  the  desert  of  sand  to  where  the 
mountains  rise  again,  and  so  down  the 
slope  into  the  golden  country  of  warmth 
and  sunshine.  The  months  had  crept  into 
years;  the  lines  had  deepened  in  Thomas's 
face,  and  the  silvery  threads  were  shining 
in  Hannah's  brown  hair,  but  no  word  of 
complaint  came  from  her  lips  and  no  feel 
ing  of  reproach  was  in  her  heart.  The 
living  had  been  precarious,  the  wanderings 
had  been  long,  and  the  halts  many,  but  the 
two  grown-up  children  held  to  each  other 
— the  one  because  he  had  learned  in  his 
vacillation  and  weakness  to  lean  on  a  better 
and  braver  spirit,  the  other  because  she 
loved  and  was  strong. 

Standing  on  the  cliff  that  looked  over  the 
western  ocean,  Thomas,  in  a  wave  of  re 
morse  that  periodically  overwhelmed  him, 
and  mindful  of  his  failings  and  his  failures, 
said  ruefully: 

"Your  father  was  right,  Hannah.  You 
took  me  for  poorer  and  for  worse.  I  have 
done  nothing  that  I  should  have  done, 
42 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

everything  that  I  should  not  have  done. 
You  have  followed  me  faithfully  and  loy 
ally,  but  fruitlessly,  from  ocean  to  ocean. 
I  wonder  why  you  have  loved  me  and 
stood  by  me  all  these  years." 

Then  Hannah,  her  maiden  dreams  dis 
pelled  and  her  hopes  dimmed,  but  her  faith 
and  courage  strong  and  high,  replied: 

"We  do  not  always  know  why  we  love, 
Thomas,  or  why  we  are  constant.  It  is 
not  given  to  a  woman  to  argue  such  things 
or  to  explain  them  by  any  exact  rule  of 
science.  In  truth,  I  would  not  wish  to 
ask  myself  why  I  love  thee,  or  what  thee 
has  done  either  to  hold  or  to  forfeit  my 
love.  It  is  enough  for  me  to  know  that  I 
love,  and  that  I  have  always  loved  since 
we  were  children  far  off  yonder. ' ' 

The  memory  of  those  days  rushed  back 
and  she  choked  in  her  speech.  But 
Thomas  had  already  forgotten  her,  for  a 
great  ship  had  passed  out  of  the  golden 
gate  and  was  spreading  its  wings  for  the 
eager  flight.  "See,  Hannah,"  he  cried, 
"what  a  glorious  thing  it  would  be — "  and 
43 


The  Bondage  of  Eallmger 

he  stopped  suddenly,  for  his  thoughts  were 
on  the  speeding  vessel  and  the  waters  and 
the  distant  shores  beyond. 

Hannah  smiled  and  laid  her  hand  upon 
his  arm.  "I  know  what  is  in  thy  heart, 
Thomas,  and  how  gladly  thee  would  go 
with  me  across  the  water." 

"Think  of  the  new  world  that  would 
open  up  to  us,  Hannah.  Think  of  the 
treasures  that  we  should  see  and  that 
might  be  ours.  In  a  few  weeks,  or  months 
at  the  latest,  I  shall  be  able  to  save  the 
money  for  our  passage  and  we  shall  go  into 
new  lands  and  realize  all  our  dreams. ' ' 

Then  Hannah  smiled  again,  but  sadly. 
"I  have  no  dreams  to  realize,  dear.  Is  it 
not  sufficient  that  we  are  growing  old  in 
our  wandering,  and  that  we  have  come  to 
our  country's  end?  Must  our  wedding 
journey  go  on  forever?" 

When  Thomas  reddened  at  this  thrust 
she  repented  in  the  delicacy  of  her  nature, 
and  said  softly: 

"It  will  go  on  forever,  dear,  for  thee  is 
always  a  lover  to  me,  and  our  journey  is 
44 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

in  love.  But,"  she  added,  roguishly, 
"thee  has  not  exhausted  our  country's 
resources,  Thomas;  thee  has  not  bought 
all  the  books." 

He  laughed  at  this.  ''These  books  are 
not  all  my  offending,  Hannah.  I  wish  I 
could  think  they  are,  for  I  have  been  sel 
fish  and  mindful  only  of  my  own  wishes. 
But  I  am  going  to  begin  again,  and  in 
earnest.  Hereafter  for  every  book  you 
shall  have  a  forfeit.  Better  than  this,  I 
shall  buy  no  more  books.  From  this  mo 
ment  I  am  emancipated  from  the  slavery 
that  has  made  you  suffer  so  much." 

Still  with  that  same  patient,  gentle  smile 
she  replied:  "I  would  not  ask  thee,  dear, 
to  do  this  for  my  happiness  or  thy  wretched 
ness.  We  must  take  our  lives  as  they 
come  to  us.  We  may  not  wholly  destroy 
the  impulse  that  is  strong,  or  chafe  under 
the  desires  we  cannot  kill.  But  we  may 
take  our  life  more  gently,  dear.  We  may 
find  a  home  where  our  wandering  may  end 
and  where  we  may  enjoy  in  peace  and  rest 
the  things  that  are  precious  to  us." 
45 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

"May  we  not  find  such  a  home  across 
the  water,  Hannah?  How  often  have  we 
talked  of  the  distant  land  where  life  is  one 
long  and  pleasant  summer,  where  there  are 
no  cares,  no  troubles,  and  where  every 
thing  that  we  have  left  in  the  sunny  coun 
try  you  loved  so  much  is  intensified  a  hun 
dred-fold.  " 

She  shook  her  head.  " Would  such  a 
land  hold  thee,  Thomas?  It  seems  fair 
and  pleasant  now,  as  was  the  country  we 
deserted,  but  would  it  last?  Should  we 
not  be  wandering  again,  always  wandering, 
in  search  of  the  happiness  that  lies  just 
beyond.  Should  we  not  find  that  we  are 
deceived  in  this  as  we  have  been  deceived 
all  these  years.  Is  there  any  happiness 
beyond  the  contentment  of  our  own  minds, 
dear?" 

He  said  quietly,  though  his  eyes  still 
gazed  far  over  the  placid  ocean:  "Shall  we 
go  back,  Hannah,  back  through  the  desert 
and  over  the  mountains,  away  from  all  this 
summer  and  warmth  and  luxuriance  of 
nature?" 

46 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

She  looked  at  him,  and  the  flush  came 
to  her  face  and  the  light  to  her  eyes. 
"Let  us  go  back,"  she  said. 

"But,"  he  urged,  "the  journey  is  long 
and  difficult,  nothing  is  ahead  of  us  to 
stimulate  our  hopes  and  excite  our  ambi 
tions,  and  we  are  very  poor. ' ' 

"Was  the  journey  short  and  were  we 
rich  when  we  came,  dear?" 

"Our  parents  are  dead,  and  our  friends 
are  scattered,  Hannah.  The  years  have 
brought  changes  to  our  village  as  well  as 
to  us.  We  shall  be  known  to  few,  and  all 
will  be  so  different.  Is  it  not  a  risk  that 
we  should  avoid?" 

"Is  it  not  our  home,  Thomas?  Let  us 
go  back." 

"And  the  temptations,  Hannah?"  He 
thought  of  what  she  had  said  and  he  was 
wavering.  "You  know  my  weakness, 
dear,  and  it  is  a  land  of  books. ' ' 

She  laid  her  head  on  his  shoulder  and 
turned  her  face  that  he  might  not  see  her 
smile.  And  she  answered  simply: 

"Let  us  go  back." 
47 


IF  the  sunlight  had  danced  less  merrily 
on  the  waves  of  the  great  lake  as  they 
rolled  in  to  the  western  shore,  if  the  chang 
ing  tints  of  gray,  blue,  and  green,  far  to 
the  north,  south,  and  east,  had  been  less 
fascinating  to  Thomas  Ballinger  and  less 
restful  to  Hannah,  perhaps  they  might  not 
have  lingered  in  the  smoky,  grimy  city 
with  its  rushing  tide  of  money-seekers  and 
fortune-builders.  They  had  come  slowly 
across  the  desert  and  mountains  and  prairie, 
and  had  stopped  again  to  take  breath  and 
acquire  the  means  of  journeying.  And  if 
Thomas  cculd  have  looked  into  the  mysteri 
ous  book  which  holds  the  future,  and  turned 
to  the  page  which  bears  his  name,  he  would 
have  seen  that  fate  decreed  that  his  wan 
derings  were  over  and  that  he  had  come  at 
last  to  his  inheritance,  poor,  small,  and  un 
certain  though  it  might  be. 

But  the  one  thing  that  never  entered 
into  Thomas's  calculations  was  the  future, 
48 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

and  he  was  accustomed  to  argue  that  the 
man  who  is  ever  bothering  his  poor  brain 
with  problems  of  what  may  happen  by  and 
by  is  wholly  insensible  to  the  delights  of 
the  present.  It  might  have  been  retorted 
by  Hannah,  or  other  members  of  the  family 
entitled  to  speak,  that  he  who  is  absorbed 
in  the  joys  of  the  present  is  laying  up  more 
than  his  share  of  trouble  for  the  future,  but 
such  replies  he  would  have  dismissed  not 
only  as  discourteous,  but  as  entirely  foreign 
to  the  question.  Yet  in  spite  of  his  dis 
inclination  to  consider  the  various  periods 
of  time,  Thomas  acknowledged  that  work 
must  be  accepted  as  a  factor  in  the  argu 
ment,  viewed  from  any  standpoint,  and 
work  he  found  immediately,  and  friends, 
and  good  wages,  and  far  uptown  in  a  quiet 
street  near  the  water's  edge  he  established 
Hannah  in  a  little  house,  where  the  vines 
grew  up  and  around  the  windows,  and 
where  through  the  looping  wistaria  and 
honeysuckle  she  could  look  out  on  the  roll 
ing  waves. 

During  the  months  of  journeying  Thomas 

49 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

had  stood  manfully  to  his  resolution  and 
had  resisted  the  occasional  temptation  that 
came  in  his  way,  for  the  country  was  new 
and  the  books  either  newer  or  just  old  and 
indifferent  enough  to  be  valueless.  Even 
after  he  had  settled  down  in  the  great  city, 
and  had  soberly  furnished  the  house  for 
Hannah,  he  gave  many  indications  of  the 
cure  of  his  folly,  and  with  just  pride  and 
exultation  he  would  dwell  on  this  achieve 
ment  as  significant  of  what  any  man  may 
do  if  he  has  the  power  of  will  and  strength 
of  character.  And  one  day,  the  conversa 
tion  turning  on  the  influence  of  habit,  he 
said  to  Hannah: 

"I  am  tempted  to  laugh  at  myself  when 
I  think  how,  even  temporarily,  I  was 
drawn  into  a  habit  which  with  some  per 
sons  might  pass  for  extravagance.  By 
nature  I  am  a  prudent  and  a  saving  man, 
and  if  in  the  years  I  am  speaking  of  I  per 
mitted  myself  to  indulge  luxuriously  in 
things  which  showed  no  immediate  profit 
on  the  investment,  I  think  we  may  both 
say  that  the  temporary  dissipation  only 
50 


The  Bondage  of  Ballingcr 

emphasized  and  drew  out  my  innate  cau 
tion.  In  like  manner  economy  has  become 
with  me  now  a  fixed  habit,  and  the  desire 
to  save  is  as  strong  as  the  former  wish  to 
spend.  At  the  same  time  there  is  danger 
that  we  may  carry  our  principle  too  far, 
and  that  we  may  eventually  become  as 
sordid  and  commercial  as  our  neighbors, 
Hannah.  You  see  in  them  what  atmos 
phere  and  environment  can  do  in  the  way 
of  stifling  all  the  better  emotions.  And 
the  same  criticism  may  be  applied  to  us. 
I  was  humiliated  enough  to-day,  when  I 
discovered  that  I  positively  have  sixty-five 
dollars  in  the  bank. ' ' 

Thomas  did  not  permit  this  humiliation 
to  plague  him  for  any  length  of  time,  and 
presently  huge  boxes  of  freight  began  to 
arrive  from  distant  points  in  the  east,  west, 
and  south,  the  results  of  investments  in 
former  days,  safely  sealed  and  housed  until 
the  period  of  wandering  should  pass.  And 
with  each  fresh  arrival  Hannah  would  sigh 
and  Betty,  the  cook  and  general  superin 
tendent — Thomas's  tribute  to  temporary 
5' 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

prosperity — would  protest  and  threaten, 
and  give  notices  ranging  from  five  minutes 
to  thirty  days,  for  Betty  was  autocratic 
and  explosive,  and  Thomas  admitted,  re 
turning  home  at  night,  that  unless  she  an 
nounced  her  impending  departure,  he  felt 
that  the  routine  of  his  life  was  fractured 
and  that  something  gently  stimulating  was 
missing.  Presently  the  cottage  began  to 
overflow.  Books  filled  the  small  parlor, 
lapped  over  into  the  hall,  and  crept  into 
the  dining-room.  The  three  bedrooms 
were  plentifully  supplied  with  reading  mat 
ter  of  all  kinds,  and  Betty,  who  could  be 
sarcastic,  in  phraseology  inelegant  but 
forceful,  suggested  that  some  shelves 
might  be  put  up  back  of  the  kitchen  stove, 
and  that  there  was  still  a  little  room  in  the 
pantry  and  refrigerator.  Even  Hannah, 
whose  gentle  nature  would  not  customarily 
permit  her  to  indulge  in  levity  which  carried 
a  sting,  was  heard  to -say,  confidentially, 
that  it  would  help  the  situation  not  a  little 
if  some  inventive  genius  would  construct  a 
combination  bookcase  and  dining-room 

£2 


The  Bondage  of  Bat 'linger 

table.  These  amiable  reflections,  how 
ever,  were  lost  on  Thomas,  whose  ideas  in 
the  matter  of  domestic  economy  were  not 
very  profound,  and  to  whom  the  subject 
was  one  of  the  utmost  simplicity.  For 
inasmuch  as  there  was  a  large  variety  of 
books  and  very  little  of  anything  else,  it 
followed  that  the  books  must  have  the 
space.  That  was  as  plain  as  the  proverbial 
pikestaff. 

On  the  second  floor,  back  in  the  north 
east  corner,  was  the  room  which  passed  in 
the  family  order  as  the  den,  and  here 
Thomas  conveyed  his  most  precious  be 
longings,  first  editions  of  the  New  England 
school  of  poetry  and  romance,  inscribed 
and  autographed  letters,  notes,  photo 
graphs,  maps,  manuscript,  and  all  the  asso 
ciations  of  earlier  days,  presentation  copies, 
and  limited  editions  from  every  section  of 
the  country  through  which  he  had  traveled 
— a  tribute,  as  he  said,  to  his  thrift  and 
foresight.  Here  also  was  the  table  on 
which  he  proposed  to  write  his  recollections 
when  old  age  justified  them — a  table 
53 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

thought  to  have  been  associated  with  the 
Concord  school  of  philosophy — and  here 
was  the  reading-chair  in  which  tradition  had 
it  Mr.  Emerson  and  Mr.  Thoreau  had  alter 
nately  sat  during  periods  of  disputation. 
Other  souvenirs,  practical  and  ornamental, 
contributed  to  the  peculiar  atmosphere  of 
the  den,  the  delights  of  which  were  made 
significant,  if  not  enhanced,  by  a  powerful 
and  pervasive  odor  of  mustiness  and  stale 
tobacco  smoke. 

At  Thomas  Ballinger's  peculiar  theories 
of  the  proper  method  of  preserving  the 
fascinations  of  a  den  Hannah  winked  and 
Betty  openly  sniffed.  To  him,  however, 
the  room  was  sacred,  and  it  was  under 
stood  in  the  family  that  it  should  be  thor 
oughly  swept  and  dusted  twice  a  year,  and 
only  at  such  other  times  as  the  occupant 
should  specify.  But  as  nothing  was  further 
from  Thomas's  thoughts  than  the  removal 
of  a  little  coating  of  dirt  and  dust,  which 
gave  a  scholarly  air  to  the  surroundings,  it 
came  about  that  the  semi-annual  invasion 
of  the  premises  answered  all  purposes.  It 
54 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

was  enough  for  Thomas  that  the  daily 
feminine  ministrations  were  confined  to  the 
filling  of  the  lamp,  for  in  common  with 
most  men  of  studious  habits  and  modest 
tastes,  he  had  a  profound  contempt  for  a 
woman's  idea  of  cleaning  up,  which  means 
the  displacement  of  books,  the  confusion 
of  papers,  and  the  general  upheaval  of 
masculine  discipline.  It  was  his  boast  that 
he  could  go  to  his  den  at  any  hour  of  dark 
est  night  and  lay  his  hand  on  a  book  or 
paper  which  he  might  desire  to  consult, 
and  he  contrasted  this  accomplishment  with 
the  misery  of  an  improvident  woman  who 
never  can  find  anything  in  her  boudoir 
under  a  five  minutes'  search  with  the  aid 
of  all  the  modern  improvements  in  the  way 
of  illumination.  How  this  feat  of  Thomas's 
was  accomplished  it  would  be  difficult  to 
explain,  for  there  are  many  things  in  the 
philosophy  of  the  studious  life  which  are 
concealed  from  the  wise  and  prudent  of 
both  sexes. 

Among  other  gifts  Thomas  had  inherited 
from  his  New  England  ancestry  a  certain 
55 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

knack  of  carpentering,  which,  while  not 
perhaps  of  the  most  finished  art,  served 
excellently  for  sentimental  uses.  Observ 
ing  neighbors  in  the  early  clays  of  the  den, 
good  people  of  the  unromantic  sort,  mar 
veled  when  packages  of  boards,  apparently 
very  old  and  very  much  begrimed,  arrived 
by  freight  and  express,  and  the  rumor  soon 
spread  that  Thomas  Ballinger  had  sent 
down  east  for  worn-out  lumber.  Then  the 
story  grew  that  these  boards  had  come 
from  the  houses  of  men  famous  in  the 
literature  of  the  country,  that  each  board 
had  a  literary  history  and  could  tell  a  tale 
as  marvelous  as  any  related  at  the  Way 
side  Inn  if  only  it  could  speak.  Mrs. 
Colver,  whose  prime  duty  it  was  to  keep 
the  entire  neighborhood  informed  as  to  the 
progress  of  affairs,  real  and  fictitious,  and 
who  was  supposed  to  employ  an  extra 
maid  for  no  other  purpose  than  to  depart 
at  a  moment's  notice  on  police  or  picket 
duty,  declared  that  she  had  seen  "Con 
cord"  painted  on  one  of  these  boards. 
And  the  good  lady  furthermore  stoutly  as- 
56 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

sorted,  though  in  the  strictest  confidence, 
that  on  the  under  side  of  another  board  she 
had  been  enabled  to  decipher  a  "T"  and 
and  "e"  and  an  "a,"  from  which  she 
deduced  the  conclusion  that  this  particular 
board  was  at  one  time  the  property  of  Mr. 
Thoreau.  But  the  lady  to  whom  she  com 
municated  this  startling  and  highly  reason 
able  inference  objected,  on  the  ground  that 
these  cabalistic  letters  might  stand  as  well 
for  "  Texas, "  so  on  that  point  they  parted. 
As  for  Thomas,  he  merely  smiled  and  said 
nothing  when  his  neighbors  grew  too  in 
quisitive,  but  Mrs.  Colver  observed — and 
spoke  of  it,  too — that  he  handled  each  piece 
very  carefully,  and  even  patted  it  and 
rubbed  it  affectionately  when  he  surmised 
that  nobody  was  looking. 

So  in  his  leisure  moments  he  planed  and 
sawed  and  chiseled,  and  put  together  piece 
on  piece,  each  marked  with  baffling  crypto 
grams  which  would  have  driven  the  neigh 
bors  mad  with  curiosity  could  they  have 
seen  it.  And  in  time,  from  this  pile  of 
sacred  lumber,  came  forth  a  bookcase,  not 
57 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

bewildering  in  its  beauty,  but  strong  and 
sturdy,  reaching  from  one  end  of  the  den 
to  the  other,  and  standing  six  good  feet  in 
height.  Even  the  glass  doors  were  fitted 
and  joined  by  his  hand,  for  Thomas  had 
declared  that  he  would  perform  this  labor 
of  love  alone  and  unaided,  and  that  it 
should  serve  as  a  testimonial  to — and  there 
he  stopped.  Those  same  neighbors  would 
have  given  a  dollar  each  to  bribe  Thomas 
to  finish  the  sentence,  and  Mrs.  Colver 
would  have  subscribed  to  a  much  larger 
sum  for  the  privilege  of  retailing  the  news, 
but  his  lips  were  shut.  And  when  they 
would  have  dragged  the  secret  from  Han 
nah,  she  shook  her  head  and  smiled  and 
answered,  "Thee  must  ask  Thomas." 

Diggs  the  detective  lived  in  the  house 
three  doors  below.  For  nearly  a  genera 
tion  the  fame  of  Diggs  had  endured  in  the 
memory  of  his  grateful  fellow-citizens.  He 
was  the  terror  of  wrong-doers  and  the  rock 
of  law-abiding  folk.  When  Diggs  was  put 
on  a  case,  however  intricate,  the  commu 
nity  knew  that  the  mystery  was  as  good  as 
58 


The  Bondage  of  Batlinger 

unraveled,  and  when  he  consented  to  ex 
press  an  opinion  in  the  neighborhood,  if 
was  immediately  accepted  as  the  word  of 
the  court  of  last  resort,  which  nothing  could 
over-ride  save  an  amendment  to  the  consti 
tution.  So  it  was  suggested  to  Diggs, 
purely  in  a  friendly  and  neighborly  way, 
that  his  acknowledged  talents  might  be  em 
ployed  in  solving  the  annoying  problem  of 
the  bookcase  and  the  story  of  the  lumber. 
But  Diggs  was  an  honorable  and  grateful 
man,  as  detectives  go,  and  flatly  refused 
to  betray  the  friendship  and  confidence  of 
one  who  had  recognized  his  professional 
talents  and  interests,  and  had  introduced 
him  to  tke  literary  delights  of  Gaboriau 
and  "The  Moonstone."  "I  couldn't  do 
it, ' '  said  Diggs,  waving  his  hand  protest- 
ingly;  "it  would  be  particeps  criminis  and 
unprofessional."  Diggs  spoke  in  good 
faith,  for  he  was  fond  of  employing  at  hap 
hazard,  when  he  desired  to  speak  with 
decision  and  extraordinary  impressiveness, 
such  Latin  phrases  and  terms  as  he  picked 
up  around  the  courts.  An  extraordi- 
59 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

nary  man  was  Diggs,  as  will  be  developed 
here  and  there  as  occasion  arises. 

When  the  bookcase  was  completed,  and 
had  been  subjected  to  every  critical  test 
the  taste  and  care  of  Thomas  could  devise, 
the  question  of  its  contents  presented  itself. 
This  is  a  far  more  serious  matter  than  is 
apparent  to  the  layman,  with  his  scant 
knowledge  of  and  casual  acquaintance  with 
books,  but  to  Thomas  it  involved  no  pro 
longed  consideration,  for  as  a  book  collector 
of  wisdom  and  experience,  he  had  that  nice 
discrimination  which  distinguishes  the  senti 
mental  bibliophile  from  the  ordinary 
librarian. 

"You  do  not  put  old  wine  into  new 
bottles,"  he  said  to  Hannah,  at  the  table, 
when  that  good  woman  remarked  on  the 
somewhat  decrepit  character  of  the  vol 
umes  he  had  placed  so  carefully  on  the 
shelves. 

"We  do  not  put  wine  into  any  kind  of 
bottles,  Thomas,"  replied  Hannah,  meekly 
but  reproachfully,  for  though  she  was  ac 
quainted  with  scriptural  metaphor,  she  was 
60 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

a  prudent  housewife  and  abhorred  the  thief 
that  steals  away  men's  brains. 

"True, "  said  Thomas,  apologetically. 
"Since  we  must  be  exact  I  confess  that 
our  wine-cellar  exists  only  in  my  imagina 
tion,  so  we'll  drop  that  question,  if  you  do 
not  mind.  But  I  meant  to  say,  when  I  got 
into  the  flowers  of  speech,  that  there  is  to 
everybody  something  that  is  a  little  nearer 
and  dearer  than  the  rest  of  his  possessions, 
that  affords  him  more  sympathetic  delight, 
and  it  therefore  gives  him  pleasure  that 
that  something  is  appropriately  surrounded 
and  guarded  and  maintained  to  accord 
with  the  sentiment  it  inspires. ' ' 

Hannah  looked  demurely  down  and 
smoothed  the  wrinkles  in  her  faded  gown. 
"And  is  that  the  reason  I  am  wearing  this 
old  dress?"  she  asked,  innocently  enough 
to  be  sure. 

Thomas  smiled  at  this,  though  it  was  a 
home  thrust,  but  he  knew  how  to  disarm 
the  little  wife,  for  in  his  sentimental  mo 
ments,  and  when  his  conscience  reproached 
him — and  a  very  tender  conscience  he 
61 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

had,  this  foolish,  unpractical  fellow — he 
would  revert  to  the  Quaker  speech  and 
carry  all  before  him.  And  he  went  over 
and  put  his  arm  affectionately  around  her 
and  kissed  her.  "Nay,  Hannah,"  he 
said,  "thee  is  not  wearing  the  dress  for 
such  a  reason,  for  thee  is  beautiful  to  me 
in  any  garb,  but  because  thee  was  foolish 
enough  to  marry  a  brute  of  a  husband  who 
robs  thee  of  all  womanish  vanities  to 
gratify  his  own  selfish  pleasures." 

Then  Hannah's  heart,  just  as  confiding 
and  weak  and  forgiving  as  in  the  years  be 
fore  experience  could  bring  wisdom,  came 
into  her  throat,  and  she  pressed  his  hand 
and  asked  him  to  forget  her  unkind  words, 
declaring  that  it  was  her  intolerable  temper 
that  prompted  her  to  such  malicious  utter 
ances.  And  if  Thomas  received  these 
affectionate  assurances  without  dispute, 
remember  that  he  was  a  man,  with  a 
man's  way  of  accepting  feminine  tributes. 

"As  I  was  saying,"  he  went  on,  resum 
ing  his  seat  at  the  table  after  the  battle  had 
been  fought  and  won,  "we  hold  some 
62 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

things  peculiarly  dear  because  of  their 
association.  There  is,  or  should  be,  a  per 
sonal  side  to  every  library.  I  need  not 
remind  you  that  I  have  been  collecting 
books  for  many  years — often  without  just 
provocation  I  admit,  ' '  he  added,  as  he  saw 
a  faint  smile  on  Hannah's  face — "but  while 
I  have  tried  to  be  thoughtful  and  prudent 
in  the  main,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  there 
is  as  much  difference  in  our  love  for  books 
as  in  our  affection  for  children.  There  are 
books,  as  there  are  children,  whom  we 
wish  to  have  constantly  at  hand.  We 
never  tire  of  fondling  them  and  petting 
them.  They  become,  first  perhaps  through 
admiration,  then  by  close  association,  a 
part  of  our  lives,  until  it  seems  that  our 
existence  is  linked  with  them,  and  that  they 
have  a  personal  being  with  which  we  can 
communicate. ' ' 

Hannah  hesitated.  She  had  certain 
ideas  which  she  might  have  expressed,  but 
what  were  the  incapable  theories  of  a 
woman  and  a  wife  in  combat  with  the  views 
of  a  sentimental  but  wise  philosopher? 
63 


The  Bondage  of  Ealllnger 

"It  is  a  beautiful  thought,  Thomas,"  she 
finally  ventured  submissively. 

"Of  course,"  said  Thomas,  stimulated 
by  such  conjugal  praise,  "there  is  as  much 
difference  in  book-collectors  as  in  the  books 
themselves.  Nothing  is  so  deserving  of 
scorn  as  the  fellow  who  fondly  imagines 
that  he  is  a  bibliophile,  and  who  buys 
books  at  the  instigation  of  his  bookseller  as 
a  speculator  buys  grain  or  stock  at  the  sug 
gestion  of  his  broker.  Look  at  old  Her- 
vey,  the  millionaire,  whose  library  was  sold 
at  auction  the  other  day.  That  library 
brought  thousands  of  dollars  and  was  full 
of  the  rarest  literary  curiosities,  yet  Her- 
vey  could  not  have  told  an  Elzevir  from 
the  ordinary  Latin  grammar,  or  a  Kelm- 
scott  from  a  school-book.  It  was  a  great 
day  for  the  emancipation  of  misplaced  vol 
umes  when  old  Hervey  passed  away." 

"I  would  not  say  that,  Thomas,"  ob 
jected  Hannah,  mildly. 

"It  is  true,  Hannah.  These  fellows 
who  call  themselves  book-lovers  because 
they  have  money  with  which  to  put  up  the 
64 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

prices  and  secure  all  the  treasures  are  a 
disgrace  and  a  hindrance  to  the  noble 
guild.  What  care  they  for  a  book  except 
for  the  fact  that  it  costs  so  many  dollars  or 
hundreds  of  dollars,  and  somebody  else  is 
clamorous  for  it?  Does  the  book  in  itself 
represent  anything  to  them?  Do  they  ever 
read  it,  or  take  it  out  of  the  case  and  pet 
it,  and  glory  in  the  association  it  brings? 
Does  a  first  edition  bring  up  to  them  the 
joys  and  hopes  and  fears  and  tremblings 
with  which  the  author,  perhaps  long  famous 
and  long  dead,  put  it  forth?  Does  the 
autograph  of  a  historian,  the  handwriting 
of  a  philosopher,  the  written  sentiment  of 
a  great  poet,  mean  more  to  them  than  what 
it  will  bring  in  the  market?  Are  they  any 
nearer  to  these  departed  giants  because 
they  hold  a  manuscript  which  they  bought 
as  a  speculation?  Yet  they  think  they  are 
book-lovers,  who  are  merely  book-buyers. ' ' 

"Thee  has   a  wonderful    imagination/' 
interposed  Hannah. 

"It  is  imagination  that  makes  for  the 
joy  of  life, ' '  replied  Thomas. 
65 


The  Bondage  of  Ealllnger 

"I  know  that  only  too  well.  Thee — " 
and  Hannah  stopped,  and  colored,  and 
shook  her  head. 

"Go  on,"  said  Thomas  encouragingly. 

"Nay,  Thomas,  I  would  not  say  the 
unkind  thing  that  was  in  my  mind,  but 
thee  knows  that  the  money  set  apart  for 
our  supper  to-night  was  spent  in  thy  great 
wisdom  for  a  book,  and  that  thee  has 
eaten  largely  of  thy  imagination,  with  such 
help  as  I  in  my  smaller  capacity  could  give 
with  the  means  at  hand.  I  know  that  the 
book  meant  much  more  to  thee  than  our 
poor  supper  and  I  am  glad  for  thy  sake. 
Forgive  me,  Thomas.  I  am  not  complain 
ing  if  thee  is  satisfied,  dear. ' ' 

"These  domestic  illustrations,"  replied 
Thomas,  much  diverted  by  Hannah's  wit 
and  unselfishness,  "serve  only  to  bring  out 
my  point  more  clearly.  What  does  it 
matter  that  I  am  eating  scraps  of  yester 
day's  feast  if  we  are  contented,  and  if  they 
represent  to  us  all  the  delicacies  the  palate 
may  crave?  But  the  book,  Hannah!  Ah, 
it  was  a  rare  bargain.  It  was  going  for  a 

66 


The  Bondage  of  Eallmger 

pitiful  price  to  an  ignorant  fellow,  who 
knew  no  more  of  its  precious  joys  than  I 
know  of  the  fifth  heaven  of  Mahomet. 
It  was  my  duty  to  rescue  so  glorious  a 
book  from  so  melancholy  a  fate,  and  if  I 
had  gone  supperless  to  bed  to-night  it 
could  not  have  repressed  the  joy  I  feel  at 
my  ability  to  stand  an  old  friend  in  stead; 
for  I  have  searched  for  that  book,  Hannah, 
these  five  years,  and  just  as  I  despaired  of 
finding  it,  behold,  it  comes  to  my  hand  for 
a  paltry  sum — a  book  that  is  worth  a  hun 
dred  suppers. ' ' 

His  enthusiasm  communicated  itself  to 
his  wife — faithful,  patient,  long-suffering 
wife — the  uncomplaining  victim  of  a  griev 
ous  malady.  "And  will  thee  put  it  in  thy 
grand  bookcase?"  she  asked. 

"Perhaps,  and  yet  I  may  not.  There 
are  associations  of  books  simply  as  books, 
and  there  are  again  associations  of  books 
with  the  writers  whom  we  have  known  and 
loved.  You  have  heard  of  library  ghosts, 
of  pictures  that  have  come  down  from  the 
walls,  of  books  that  have  stepped  forth 
67 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

from  the  shelves  to  hold  literary  revel  with 
those  who  believe  in  their  personality  and 
who  receive  them  trustingly  and  confide  in 
them  implicitly?'5 

They  had  passed  into  the  little  parlor, 
and  Hannah,  half-frightened  by  her  hus 
band's  seriousness,  drew  him  down  to  the 
sofa  and  held  his  hand  in  hers. 

"I  do  not  believe  in  ghosts  of  any  kind, 
dear/'  she  said,  "and  least  of  all  in  those 
that  would  take  thee  away  from  me.  If 
there  are  such  ghosts  as  thee  has  de 
scribed  in  thy  den,  Betty  and  I  shall  see  to 
it  that  they  are  swept  away  to-morrow. ' ' 

"My  ghosts  will  never  annoy  thee,"  re 
plied  Thomas,  with  a  smile,  "for  they  are 
gentle  ghosts;  and  remember  that  thee 
has  said  that  I  have  a  wonderful  imagina 
tion.  Listen,  Hannah;  this  is  what  I 
mean.  In  the  evening,  when  I  am  in  the 
den,  and  thou  art  sewing  in  thy  room,  and 
Betty  has  finished  her  summary  of  the  day 
and  her  instructions  for  the  morrow,  I  turn 
the  key  in  the  great  padlock  of  the  book 
case  and  take  out,  one  by  one  as  memory 

68 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

suggests,  the  books  I  collected  when  a  boy. 
Small  and  brown  and  homely  they  are, 
unattractive  volumes  that  the  ignorant 
would  pass  by  unthinkingly,  but  precious 
to  the  wise  man  and  beyond  price  to  him 
who  dwells  familiarly  with  them.  For 
on  the  leaves  are  the  names  of  great  men 
long  since  gone,  and  sentiments  written 
only  for  me;  and  hidden  away  are  let 
ters  bringing  back  a  rush  of  memories, 
letters  wonderful  to  the  boy  who  read 
them,  and  holy  to  the  man  who  now  reads 
them.  And  reading  here  and  there,  and 
fondly  caressing  them,  it  seems  to  me  that 
a  personality  is  with  me,  and  that  I  am 
again  sitting  and  talking  with  those  who 
wrote  them,  and  who  have  come  back  from 
a  long  journey  to  remain  with  me  for  all 
time.  These  are  my  ghosts,  Hannah,  my 
gentle,  harmless  ghosts,  whom  thee  and 
Betty  would  sweep  away. ' ' 

Tears  stood  in  Hannah's  eyes,  for  she 

was    always   a   foolish    child,    this  woman 

with  the  gray  around  the  temples,  and  she 

answered:  ' '  I  would  not  banish  thy  friendly 

69 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

ghosts,  Thomas,  since  they  bring  to  thee 
so  much  happiness.  But  tell  me,  when 
thee  is  in  the  den  with  thy  spirits  who 
lead  thee  to  the  past,  do  they  ever  call  to 
mind  the  red  school-house,  and  the  clover 
patch,  the  summer  afternoons,  and  the  long 
lane  leading  to  the  village?  Does  a  little 
girl  ever  haunt  thy  memories?" 

And  Thomas,  with  his  man's  wrinkles 
and  his  boy's  heart,  drew  a  little  nearer  to 
her  as  he  answered:  "No  ghost  must  come 
from  grave  or  bookcase,  dear,  to  remind 
me  of  her  or  of  what  she  has  been  to  me 
all  these  years. ' ' 

But  Betty,  looking  in  from  the  kitchen, 
and  seeing  them  sitting  on  the  sofa,  with 
their  arms  around  each  other,  said,  pity 
ingly: 

"Them  two  children!" 


70 


THOMAS  BALLINGER  had  that 
lordly  contempt  for  money  which 
should  characterize  the  true  man  of  letters. 
He  contended,  after  admitting  that  certain 
sums  may  be  grudgingly  expended  for  the 
so-called  necessities  of  existence,  that  the 
only  possible  pleasure  in  money  is  the  im 
mediate  disbursement  in  such  honorable 
ways  as  the  fancy  of  the  possessor  may 
suggest.  As  for  himself,  he  argued,  there 
could  be  no  doubt  of  his  method  of  reliev 
ing  himself  of  such  vexatious  belongings, 
and  he  defended  his  conduct  by  calling 
attention  to  his  ministerial  ancestry,  and 
declaring  that  a  holy  horror  of  the  mam 
mon  of  unrighteousness  and  the  root  of  all 
evil  had  been  his  lawful  inheritance.  He 
illustrated  most  forcibly  and  convincingly 
the  perils  of  money,  considered  merely  as 
money,  and  he  thanked  God  with  all  hearti 
ness  that  he  was  free  from  all  intimation  of 
a  sordid  lust  for  wealth.  It  was  observed 
71 


The   'Bondage  of  Ballinger 

by  his  neighbor  Diggs,  the  detective,  who, 
through  reason  of  his  calling,  was  of  a  pry 
ing  and  suspicious  nature,  that  these  invec 
tives  against  the  miserly  accumulation  of 
gold  invariably  preceded  a  foray  on  the  old 
bookshops,  and  it  was  Diggs  who  directed 
Hannah's  attention  to  this  coincidence  as 
significant  storm  signals,  and  warned  her 
to  gain  possession  of  the  family  purse  be 
fore  it  was  too  late;  for  it  never  occurred 
to  Thomas,  honest  soul,  that  his  frequent 
outbursts  against  the  possession  of  tangible 
coin  and  notes  was  nothing  less  than  a  com 
promise  with  his  conscience,  that  little  moni 
tor  which  keeps  knocking  at  the  gate  of 
reason  in  spite  of  frequent  rebuffs.  And 
once,  when  his  vision  had  been  clarified  for 
the  moment  by  the  presentation  of  domestic 
needs  resulting  from  a  large  line  of  book 
shop  purchases,  he  was  compelled  to  fall 
back  on  a  new  and  degrading  line  of  argu 
ment,  a  refuge  he  would  have  scorned  had 
he  not  been  severely  put  to  it. 

"You  know,  Hannah,  that  while  it  may 
seem  foolish  at  this  moment  to  indulge  in 


The  Bondage  of  Ballmger 

such  speculation,  and  while  I  may  say  with 
all  sincerity  that  I  have  the  utmost  con 
tempt  for  a  book  purchase  from  the  money 
point  of  view,  it  is  really  a  very  profitable 
investment;  for  everybody  must  concede 
that  I  buy  with  judgment,  and  that  I  have 
not  a  book  in  my  library  on  which  I  could 
not  realize  profits  greatly  in  excess  of  the 
cost.  In  your  inexperience,  my  dear,  you 
are  not  to  be  blamed  if  these  reflections  do 
not  immediately  occur  to  you,  but  I  am 
glad  to  be  able  to  tell  you,  and  it  must  be 
pleasant  for  you  to  know,  that  the  book  for 
which  I  pay  one  dollar  to-day  I  may  sell 
for  two  dollars  to-morrow." 

And  Hannah,  with  a  gentle  little  sigh  of 
resignation,  and  with  an  exhaustive  knowl 
edge  of  the  facts  in  the  case,  replied, 
"Yea,  Thomas,  I  know,  but  thee  never 
does  sell,  dear." 

"There  is  something  in  that,"  said 
Thomas,  with  great  candor,  struck  by  the 
forcible  suggestion  that  had  heretofore 
escaped  him;  "but  perhaps  the  reason  is 
that  to-morrow  everything  is  all  right. 
73 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

Possibly  you  may  complain,  and  with  jus 
tice,  that  we  have  a  poor  supper  to-night 
because  I  took  advantage  of  a  rare  bargain 
which  might  not  present  itself  again  in  a 
lifetime.  Very  likely  the  criticism  is  not 
without  reason.  But  to-morrow  our  meals 
make  up  for  the  small  privation  of  to-day 
and  the  need  of  selling  is  past.  For  while 
undoubtedly  the  percentage  of  profit  is 
satisfactory  in  a  pinch,  the  pinch  having 
been  removed,  it  would  be  a  crime  to  dis 
pose  of  a  bargain  needlessly  at  a  small 
gain,  when  by  waiting  we  could  realize  a 
greater.  Surely  you  can  understand  that. ' ' 

"I  cannot  say  that  I  do,  fully,"  an 
swered  Hannah,  meekly;  "but  doubtless  it 
is  just  as  right  that  I  do  not  understand. 
Thee  is  a  wise  man,  Thomas,  and  we  are 
getting  along  very  well." 

With  all  his  wisdom  and  financial  acu 
men  to  back  him,  Thomas's  heart  smote 
him  after  these  conjugal  controversies,  and 
at  times  he  even  wondered  if  it  might  not 
be  that  he  was  mistaken  in  his  logic.  But 
as  each  temptation  came  it  found  him  less 
74 


The  Bondage  of  Ealllnger 

prepared  to  resist,  and  it  is  the  happy  lot 
of  the  bibliomaniac  that  the  temptations 
and  the  lapses  are  so  frequent  that  the 
time  of  remorse  is  necessarily  and  oppor 
tunely  shortened.  Thomas  had  worked 
steadily  at  his  trade,  and  notwithstanding 
his  besetting  sin,  no  serious  calamity 
seemed  likely  to  befall  the  cottage  or  its 
inmates.  Hannah  had  long  learned  to 
take  life  as  it  comes,  at  least  resigned  to  if 
not  ready  for  all  emergencies,  and  her  love 
for  Thomas  was  so  sincere,  and  her  admi 
ration  so  profound,  that  even  his  most  glar 
ing  offenses  against  common  prudence  were 
turned  into  virtues  by  a  kiss  or  an  apology. 
Not  so  with  Betty,  the  autocrat  of  the 
household,  whose  wrath  rose  at  the  sight  of 
a  book,  and  who  was  heard  more  than  once 
to  exclaim  viciously  that  book-stores  do 
more  harm  and  are  responsible  for  more 
unhappiness  in  this  world  than  saloons. 
"Which,"  said  Thomas,  calmly,  "merely 
goes  to  show  the  point  of  view  when  it 
comes  to  individual  opinion." 

The     relations     between     Betty     and 
75 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

Thomas  were,  as  Thomas  himself  con 
fessed,  somewhat  equivocal.  Ostensibly 
he  had  engaged  her  services  for  domestic 
employment  at  a  stipulated  sum  for  the 
week,  but  as  payment  was  not  infrequently 
deferred,  she  chose  to  take  her  interest  in 
voluble  expression,  thereby  demonstrating, 
as  Thomas  further  explained,  not  merely 
the  complexity  of  woman's  nature,  but  the 
infinite  variety  of  her  talents.  Whenever 
Thomas  appeared  at  evening  with  a  pack 
age  under  his  arm,  or  a  book  protruding 
from  his  pocket — and  such  appearances 
were  not  so  unusual  as  to  excite  gossip  in 
the  neighborhood — it  was  customary  for 
Betty  to  give  notice;  and  as  such  condi 
tions  were  frequently  arising,  the  notices 
came  to  amount  to  little  more  than  a  regu 
lar  household  incident.  For  Betty  was  as 
essential  to  Thomas  and  Hannah  as  was 
the  care  of  this  worthy  and  irresponsible 
couple  to  Betty  herself,  and  any  positive 
separation  would  have  been  considered  by 
all  parties  concerned  the  final  answer  to  all 
arguments  for  existence.  But  one  night 
76 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

Thomas  came  home  very  late,  slightly  out 
of  humor,  for  he  had  missed  a  bargain  of 
unusual  splendor,  and  when  Hannah  for 
bore  to  reproach  him,  Betty  assumed  the 
offensive  and  announced  the  following 
Saturday  as  the  time  of  her  departure. 

"No,"  said  Thomas  with  firmness, 
"we'll  have  no  unnecessary  procrastina 
tion;  you'll  go  to-morrow." 

"And  why  will  I  go  to-morrow?"  de 
manded  Betty,  who  was  averse  to  any  in 
terference  with  her  plans. 

"I  was  just  about  to  give  the  reason 
when  you  interrupted  me.  You're  dis 
charged." 

"I'm  what?"  asked  the  astonished  Betty. 

"You're  discharged.  Didn't  I  make 
myself  understood?  Discharged. ' ' 

"And  who'll  discharge  me?" 

"Well,  just  for  the  sake  of  argument, 
suppose  I  say  I  will." 

"And  who  is  running  this  house?"  in 
quired  Betty,  rather  impertinently,  it  is 
true,  but  she  was  under  a  tremendous 
strain. 

77 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

"Up  to  the  present  time,"  replied 
Thomas,  reflectively,  "it  would  be  a  fair 
presumption  that  you  have  been  running 
the  house,  but  in  the  future,  merely  as  a 
matter  of  principle  and  example  of  course, 
I  think  I  shall  try  a  hand  at  it." 

Out  of  the  room  flounced  Betty  in  great 
wrath,  and  a  disquieting  conviction  assailed 
Thomas  that  he  had  gone  too  far.  What 
if  Betty  should  take  him  at  his  word? 
What  if  she  should  leave  the  house  just  at 
the  time  the  house  required  her  autocratic 
but  faithful  and  kindly  presence?  Really 
the  molehill  had  been  unnecessarily  mag 
nified  into  a  mountain.  A  man  should  be 
master  of  his  household,  and  at  the  same 
time  he  should  be  willing  to  make  allow 
ances  for  the  infirmities  of  temper  of  those 
who  are  debarred  by  the  lack  of  education 
from  the  perfect  exercise  of  self-control. 
After  all,  there  was  no  servant  like  Betty. 
No  one  so  well  understood  his  appetite  or 
so  successfully  withstood  unpleasant  and 
undesirable  people  who  came  about  at  in 
convenient  times  on  commercial  business. 
78 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

Even  if  she  had  been  somewhat  overbear 
ing,  were  not  her  intentions  the  best  and 
the  fairest,  and  had  she  not  always  the  in 
terests  of  the  family  at  heart?  He  must 
temporize.  He  must  convey  to  Betty, 
without  too  great  an  infraction  of  his  dig 
nity,  that  perhaps,  after  suitable  expression 
of  contrition,  he  could  be  induced  to  over 
look  her  transgression  this  time,  and  that 
his  magnanimity  might  extend  so  far  as  to 
consent  to  give  her  another  trial.  In  fact, 
if  she  proved  inexorable  and  positively 
declined  to  listen  to  reason  and  accept  his 
conciliatory  offers,  he  must  steal  up  to  her 
room  that  night  and  lock  her  securely  hi 
until  she  could  be  brought  to  an  apprecia 
tion  of  the  absurdity  of  her  conduct. 

While  he  was  thus  conjecturing  a  way 
out  of  the  difficulty  Betty  herself  appeared 
on  the  scene.  A  high  determination  was 
written  on  her  countenance,  and  Thomas 
braced  himself  for  the  worst. 

"Mr.  Ballinger, "  she  said,  very  stiffly, 
"you  owe  me  some  wages,  I  believe." 

"Yes,  Betty,"  replied  Thomas,  grasping 
79 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

eagerly  at  the  straw,  and  with  a  propitia 
tory  smile,  "I  think  I  am  in  arrears  to  you 
for  about  four  months'  service.  It  may 
be  five  or  six;  I  don't  recall  the  exact 
period. ' ' 

"And  you  're  ready  to  pay  me?" 

"Really,  Betty,"  said  Thomas,  thought 
fully,  "I  don't  believe  I  happen  to  have  so 
much  money  about  me  at  this  time." 

"Then  if  you're  not  ready  to  pay  me, 
how  can  you  discharge  me?" 

"That  is  just  what  I  have  been  thinking, 
and  it  is  strange  how  I  overlooked  it  in  our 
little  argument.  The  fact  is,  Betty,"  he 
added,  coaxingly,  "I  have  been  debating 
that  proposition  in  my  own  mind,  and  I 
have  just  about  come  to  the  conclusion  that 
if  you'll  wait — " 

"Mr.  Ballinger,"  interrupted  Betty, 
with  impressive  dignity,  "if  you're  not 
ready  to  pay  me,  and  if  you  haven't  the 
money,  there's  only  one  thing  for  me  in 
duty  to  do.  I'll  stay  and  work  it  out." 

If  Thomas  Ballinger  had  not  possessed 
complete  mastery  of  his  emotion  he  would 
80 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

have  fallen  on  that  good  creature's  neck 
and  wept  tears  of  joy.  As  it  was,  he 
thanked  her  very  tremulously  and  asked 
her  to  try  to  forget  his  hasty  and  incon 
siderate  words.  More  than  this  he  begged 
her  to  accept  as  a  peace-offering  a  little 
book  he  had  procured  that  day,  an  ancient 
volume  treating  at  some  length  of  certain 
saints  connected  with  the  form  of  religion 
with  which  Betty  personally  associated 
every  Sunday  morning  at  a  preposterously 
early  hour.  At  any  other  time  it  is  prob 
able  that  Betty,  notwithstanding  the  com 
pliment  to  her  religious  proclivities,  would 
have  spurned  the  gift,  for  to  her  a  book 
was  not  only  a  book,  but  a  miserable  device 
of  the  Evil  One,  and  stood  for  everything 
that  is  destructive  of  domestic  discipline 
and  household  economy.  However,  she 
accepted  it  in  the  grateful  spirit  in  which 
it  was  proffered,  and  was  heard  to  say 
afterward  that  she  derived  much  spiritual 
refreshment  from  the  perusal  of  its  admir 
able  example  and  teachings.  Thus  peace 
was  restored  to  the  house  of  Ballinger,  and 
81 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

thus  the  occupants  prepared  themselves  for 
further  trouble. 

These  were  in  the  days  when,  as  Thomas 
put  it,  he  was  a  sprightly  young  fellow  of 
fifty,  with  as  quick  an  eye  and  as  keen  a 
scent  as  ever  detected  a  first  edition  or 
pointed  the  way  to  hidden  literary  treasure. 
It  was  therefore  the  most  natural  thing  in 
the  world  that  he  should  chafe  under  an 
employment,  lucrative  enough  after  a  fash 
ion,  but  monotonous  and  uncongenial  to  a 
man  of  wholly  bookish  predilections. 
Thomas  thought  it  all  out  in  an  evening — 
he  was  of  quick  and  decisive  action  where 
his  preferences  were  concerned — and  he 
made  the  announcement  conclusively  and 
with  the  most  evident  sincerity. 

"If  I  am  ever  going  to  accomplish  any 
thing  in  life,  Hannah,  I  must  begin  now. 
I  am  convinced,  after  nearly  thirty  years  of 
plodding  with  the  types,  that,  beyond  gain 
ing  a  bare  living,  I  have  wasted  my  time 
and  talents.  I  am  now,  as  New  England- 
ers  and  persons  of  New  England  descent 
go,  just  in  the  prime  of  manhood,  equipped 
82 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

to  try  any  experiment,  and  sure  to  succeed 
in  anything  that  has  the  slightest  promise 
of  success.  It  has  been  evident  to  me, 
and  to  everybody  who  has  thought  over  the 
subject,  and  who  is  competent  to  express 
an  intelligent  opinion,  that  what  this  city 
needs  is  a  first-class  old  bookshop,  con 
ducted  by  a  man  who  knows  the  business 
and  runs  it  on  legitimate  business  principles, 
a  man  strictly  honest,  altogether  reliable, 
and  content  to  make  a  fair  profit  on  his 
investments.  I  believe  I  may  say  without 
fear  of  boasting  that  I  am  that  man.  At 
least,  I  am  firmly  persuaded  in  my  own 
mind  that  I  fill  the  bill,  and  if  at  any  time 
I  find  I  am  mistaken — which  I  regard  im 
possible — I  can  easily  go  back  to  my  trade 
and  be  sure  of  a  living. ' ' 

Great  was  the  family  consternation  at 
this  thunderbolt.  Betty  gave  notice  as 
usual,  the  only  thing  she  could  consistently 
do  in  the  premises,  and  communicated  the 
story  to  the  maid  next  door  that  "Mr. 
Thomas  has  it  worse  than  ever."  "It," 
was  the  general  way  in  the  neighborhood 
83 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

of  referring  to  Thomas's  malady,  and  the 
announcement  caused  universal  grief  and 
many  expressions  of  sympathy  for  poor 
Mrs.  Ballinger.  Hannah  rewarded  the 
information  with  a  sigh  so  much  deeper 
and  more  heartfelt  than  her  accustomed 
sighs  that  Thomas,  almost  relenting,  felt 
bound  to  reassure  her.  And  when  Thomas 
put  his  arm  around  her  and  spoke  in  that 
caressing  tone,  so  full  of  confidence  and 
joyousness,  what  could  simple  little  Hannah 
see  in  life  save  happiness  and  fortune? 

"It  is  so  easy,  dear.  Can  you  not  see 
that  all  I  have  to  do  is  to  buy  a  book  in 
another  part  of  the  country,  bring  it  here, 
and  sell  it  for  three  and  often  four  and  five 
times  as  much  as  I  paid  for  it?  The  aver 
age  book-buyer  loses  all  fear  of  price  when 
you  have  the  book  he  is  seeking — ' ' 

"Yea,  Thomas,"  interrupted  Hannah, 
very  feelingly,  "we  know  that  very  well, 
dear." 

"While  I  intend,"  said  Thomas,  unheed- 
ful  of  the  interruption,  "to  be  honorable 
and  straightforward,  always  giving  value 
84 


T/ie  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

received,  so  far  as  the  buyer  is  concerned, 
I  shall  not  fail  to  make  immediate  and 
large  profits  on  my  investments.  We  shall 
prosper  at  once.  We  shall  soon  reap  the 
benefit  of  my  experience  and  study. 
Little  luxuries  you  have  been  compelled  to 
deny  yourself  on  account  of  the  smallness 
of  my  earnings  will  now  be  yours,  and  we 
may  be  able  to  keep  our  carriage — who 
knows?  Quaritch  did. ' ' 

Hannah's  lip  trembled.  In  that  beau 
tiful,  kindly  soul,  accustomed  to  the  joys 
of  expectation  and  the  swiftly  following 
pangs  of  disappointment,  there  may  have 
been  doubts  based  on  the  phantoms  of  the 
past,  but  no  word  came  to  reproach  the 
dreamer  or  repress  his  fancies.  Very 
gently  she  took  his  face  between  her  hands 
and  kissed  it,  and  said: 

"Thee  knows  what  is  best  for  us, 
Thomas.  It  is  not  for  me  to  question  thy 
wisdom  or  dispute  thy  reasoning. ' ' 

In  spite  of  Thomas's  large  hopes  and 
glittering  expectations  it  soon  became  evi 
dent  that  while  he  had  not  miscalculated 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

the  general  desire  and  eagerness  of  the 
public,  he  had  failed  to  take  into  account 
his  own  amiable  but  disastrous  weakness. 
It  was  one  thing  for  a  man  of  his  book- 
loving  propensities  to  buy  a  volume;  it  was 
quite  another  thing  to  sell  it,  whatever  the 
public  demand.  So  it  came  about  that 
whenever  he  procured  a  book  for  which  a 
customer  was  willing  to  pay  a  considerable 
price,  and  which  excited  the  desire  of  ac 
quisition  in  the  bookish  circles,  Thomas 
would  retire  to  a  secluded  corner  in  the 
rear  of  his  shop  and  commune  thus  anx 
iously  with  his  soul: 

"Is  this  man  sincerely  and  earnestly  a 
lover  of  books?  While  he  may  have 
money  enough  to  indulge  a  passing  fancy, 
and  while  he  may  be  eager  to  complete  a 
set  or  to  exult  over  a  collector  less  fortu 
nate,  am  I  justified  in  permitting  such  a 
treasure  to  go  from  my  hands  on  a  purely 
sordid  basis?  Should  I  be  acting  with 
proper  respect  to  the  memory  of  the  author 
whose  heart  was  in  his  work,  and  who 
wrote  purely  for  book-lovers?  Would  my 
86 


"The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

conscience  justify  me  in  a  transaction  so 
unmistakably  mercenary?  In  short,  would 
not  that  book  give  me  far  more  happiness 
than  it  could  possibly  give  to  him,  and 
should  I  not,  by  all  the  sacred  traditions  of 
bibliophiles,  transfer  it  to  my  own  library?" 

Thereupon  he  would  return  to  the  baffled 
and  astonished  customer,  apologize  for  the 
misunderstanding,  and  gravely  regret  that 
he  had  promised  the  book  to  another. 
And  in  the  darkness  of  night  he  would 
spirit  it  to  his  home,  and  sit  up  with  it  in 
the  security  of  his  den,  patting  it  fondly 
and  glorying  in  its  never-diminishing  de 
lights. 

With  such  constantly  recurring  experi 
ences  it  was  not  strange  that  the  large 
profits  so  boastfully  predicted  failed  to  flow 
into  the  family  coffers.  Customers  mar 
veled  that  while  they  were  unable  to  buy 
for  themselves  the  books  exhibited  on  the 
shelves,  and  which  subsequently  disap 
peared,  they  could  never  trace  them  to  the 
houses  of  the  book-seeking  fraternity — 
for  Thomas  kept  a  hard  and  fast  rule  that 
87 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

no  bibliophile  should  be  permitted  to  enter 
his  den.  "All  men  are  not  so  honest  as 
I,"  he  said,  significantly,  "and  klepto 
mania  is  too  often  associated  with  biblio 
mania.  I  do  not  mean  to  intimate,"  he 
added,  "that  my  friends  are  not  to  be 
trusted;  I  merely  wish  to  keep  from  put 
ting  them  in  the  way  of  temptation. ' ' 

Thus  the  days  ran  on,  and  the  golden 
age  of  prosperity  seemed  more  distant 
than  ever.  Household  bills  became  more 
pressing,  and  Betty  admitted  that  she  was 
at  the  end  of  her  eloquence  and  resources 
to  defer  the  day  of  judgment.  Hannah, 
with  her  hair  a  little  whiter  and  her  face  a 
little  paler,  bore  her  lot  uncomplainingly, 
unshaken  in  her  faith  in  the  man  she  loved, 
and  believing  against  all  rational  belief  that 
time  would  justify  his  hopes  and  promises. 

In  his  candid  moments  Thomas  would 
confess  with  the  most  engaging  simplicity 
that  his  judgment  was  all  right,  though  his 
impulses  might  be  all  wrong.  "Unfortu 
nately,"  he  would  add,  "my  impulses 
always  take  the  precedence  of  my  judg- 
83 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

mcnt.  Now,  if  we  could  so  reconstruct 
our  natures  that  we  have  no  impulses 
whatever,  how  much  more  harmoniously 
this  world  would  be  conducted.  Questions 
would  then  immediately  resolve  themselves 
into  a  matter  of  judgment,  and  persons  so 
well  equipped  in  that  direction  as  myself 
would  have  not  the  slightest  difficulty  in 
perpetually  doing  the  right  thing.  But 
what  can  be  expected  when  this  thing  we 
call  judgment  comes  along  after  the  im 
pulse  has  disposed  of  the  point  at  issue?" 
And  the  grief  with  which  Thomas  pre 
sented  this  interrogatory  always  obtained 
sympathy  if  it  did  not  carry  conviction. 

Mr.  Diggs,  to  whom  this  metaphysical 
problem  was  offered,  could  find  nothing  to 
say  in  contradiction,  but  one  evening  a  fair 
illustration  of  the  difficulty  was  introduced, 
when  Thomas  came  home  with  a  treasure 
not  exchangeable  either  at  the  grocery  or 
the  butcher's  shop. 

"It's  a  little  thing  I  picked  up  to-day  at 
a  private  sale,"  he  said,  with  a  sort  of 
forced  gayety  to  Hannah,  who  met  him  at 
89 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

the  door,  holding  several  ominous  papers 
in  her  hand,  "the  greatest  find  I  have  had 
in  a  month.  When  I  tell  you  that  it  is  a 
contemporaneous  account  of  the  Gordon 
No  Popery  riots,  and  that  there  are  only 
three  known  copies  in  existence,  you  will 
understand  its  value  and  congratulate  me 
on  the  purchase,  which  I  must  say  was 
surprisingly  cheap." 

"The  No  Popery  riots?"  echoed  Han 
nah.  "I  do  not  know  what  they  are, 
Thomas.  I  have  never  heard  of  them." 

"Exactly;  that  is  what  I  thought,"  re 
plied  Thomas,  briskly,  "and  that  is  one  of 
the  reasons  I  bought  the  book.  We  shall 
read  it  together,  dear,  and  you  will  find  it 
one  of  the  most  entertaining  and  instruct 
ive  of  eighteenth-century  records." 

"And  what  will  thee  do  with  it  then, 
Thomas?"  inquired  the  afflicted  Hannah. 

"Well,  I  have  not  quite  decided.  I 
thought  I  would  put  it  away  in  the  book 
case  for  a  few  days  in  order  that  I  may 
consult  it  from  time  to  time.  And  then  I 
can  dispose  of  it  as  opportunity  arises. ' ' 
90 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

"Ah,  Thomas,"  sighed  Hannah,  "has 
thee  not  yet  learned  that  whatever  goes 
into  that  bookcase  never  comes  out?  I 
must  be  a  poor  wife  who  always  interferes 
with  her  husband's  pleasures  and  deprives 
him  of  his  best  comforts,  but  trouble  has 
come.  This  paper  tells  me  that  thy  taxes 
are  due  and  wholly  unpaid,  and  the  in 
surance  man  has  written  that  thee  has 
neglected  thy  last  premium.  Betty  spoke 
to  me  to-day  of  money  which  I  could  not 
give  her,  and  the  grocer's  boy  has  called 
twice.  What,  then,  will  it  profit  us  that 
we  may  read  of  the  No  Popery  riots  or 
rejoice  in  the  scarcity  of  copies?" 

The  cloud  gathered  on  Thomas's  face, 
for  he  recognized  the  force  of  the  argu 
ment.  They  went  into  the  house  and 
Thomas  sat  down  and  gave  himself  over 
to  reflection.  Then  he  said,  repentantly: 

"You  are  right,  as  you  are  always  right. 
My  judgment  tells  me  now  that  my  im 
pulses  failed  me  when  I  did  not  accept  an 
advance  of  ten  dollars  on  the  original  price, 
offered  immediately  after  I  bought  the 
91 


The  Bondage  of  Ealllnger 

book.  But  I  see  my  mistake  and  I  shall 
atone  for  it.  Here  I  begin  a  new  leaf,  and 
I  shall  prove  to  you  that  I  know  how  to 
take  advantage  of  things  to  our  profit. 
To-morrow  I  shall  take  the  book  back — 
yes,  that  is  the  thing  to  do — and  dispose  of 
it  as  I  can,  even  if  I  am  obliged  to  sell  it 
at  the  purchase  price.  I  feel  much 
stronger,  now  that  I  have  made  up  my 
mind  to  do  the  right  thing.  As  for  these 
trifles  you  speak  of,  dear,  these  little  mat 
ters  of  mere  business  detail,  don't  let  them 
worry  you.  I  shall  easily  find  a  way  to 
provide  for  them,  and  that  shall  be  my  first 
duty  after  I  have  disencumbered  myself  of 
this  wretched  book. ' ' 

With  this  Thomas  looked  longingly  and 
dejectedly  at  the  offending  volume,  a  glance 
that  was  not  lost  on  the  anxious  wife. 

"Perhaps  there  may  be  another  way  out 
of  our  difficulty,"  she  said,  gently,  "for  it 
seems  cruel  to  deprive  thee  of  what  thee 
has  set  thy  heart  on  so  strongly.  And  I 
feel  so  helpless,  dear,  when  I  think  how 
much  a  cleverer  woman  might  do  to  per- 
92 


The  Bondage  of  Ealllnger 

mit  her  husband  to  gratify  his  great  tastes. 
If  I  only  had  some  jewelry  I  could  sell,  or 
if  I  could  earn  money  in  some  way,  the 
book  might  still  be  thine. '  * 

Even  a  less  impulsive  man  than  Thomas 
might  have  been  moved  by  this  show  of 
wifely  devotion,  for  it  was  all  so  simple 
and  so  genuine  that  it  struck  the  heart  with 
double  force.  He  replied  with  feeling: 

"No,  Hannah,  there  is  no  sacrifice  of 
which  thee  is  not  capable,  and  there  is 
nothing  of  generosity  or  help  which  thee 
has  ever  withheld.  It  is  through  thy 
goodness  that  thee  will  see  that  I  am 
stronger  than  even  I  believed,  and  that  I 
can  carry  out  the  good  determination  I 
have  formed.  What  should  I  be  without 
thy  gentleness  and  affection,  dear?  How 
impatiently  I  am  waiting  to  show  thee  what 
new  desires  thee  has  kindled  for  my  better 
life,  and  how  I  long  to  prove  to  thee  the 
firmness  of  my  will." 

In  the  morning  he  exhibited  the  book, 
carefully  wrapped  up  in  many  thicknesses 
of  paper,  in  order,  as  he  jokingly  explained, 
93 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

that  the  temptation  might  be  as  far  re 
moved  as  possible.  "You  see,  Hannah," 
he  cried,  exultingly,  "the  victory  is  already 
won.  Not  once  last  evening  did  I  permit 
myself  to  look  at  this  abominable  thing, 
and  I  am  carrying  it  back  as  cheerfully  and 
contentedly  as  if  there  were  a  copy  in  every 
library  in  the  land. ' ' 

So  Hannah,  with  her  eyes  a  little  moist, 
kissed  him  affectionately  and  he  started 
for  the  city  with  resolution  firmly  written 
on  his  face.  And  he  paused  at  the  corner 
to  wave  a  last  farewell,  and  to  point  with 
marked  significance  to  the  package,  which 
he  brandished  with  a  gesture  of  contempt. 
But  in  the  evening  when  he  returned, 
Hannah  noted  with  much  dejection  that  he 
still  carried  in  his  hand  the  mysterious  par 
cel  with  the  heavy  wrapping,  and  her  heart 
sank.  She  would  say  nothing,  this  para 
gon  of  love  and  gentleness,  to  reproach 
him,  but  he  caught  the  sad  look  on  her 
face,  and  while  blushing  guiltily,  vainly 
endeavored  to  repress  the  note  of  triumph 
in  his  voice  as  he  said: 

94 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

"You  think  I  have  failed,  Hannah,  and 
that  I  am  weaker  than  my  boasting.  I  do 
not  blame  you  for  your  suspicions,  for  I 
own  that  much  that  I  have  done  warrants 
any  doubt  of  my  ability  to  carry  out  so 
large  a  promise.  But  this  time  you  are 
mistaken,  and  I  have  triumphed.  I  car 
ried  back  the  book  as  I  intended,  and  I 
have  disposed  of  it  in  a  manner  that  will 
give  you  as  much  pleasure  as  it  has  given 
me." 

"And  this?"  asked  Hannah,  pointing  to 
the  package. 

"Ah,  this  is  a  master  stroke.  This  is 
one  of  the  accomplishments  of  business 
ingenuity  we  read  about  in  fiction.  This 
is  positively  a  feat  of  genius.  As  I  said,  I 
carried  back  the  book,  strong  in  the  reso 
lution  I  made  last  evening,  and  was  just  on 
the  point  of  selling  it  to  the  man  who  was 
my  rival  in  the  bidding  when  fortune  inter 
vened  and  sent  one  of  my  best  customers 
to  the  shop.  No  sooner  had  he  clapped 
his  eyes  on  the  book  than  I  saw  by  the  un 
mistakable  gleam  of  mania  that  he  was 
95 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

doomed.  He  took  me  aside  and  declared 
that,  whatever  I  might  have  promised,  the 
book  must  be  his.  So  we  dickered  and 
bargained  until  I  brought  him  to  my 
terms." 

"  Still  I  do  not  understand,"  said 
Hannah. 

"Of  course  not,  replied  Thomas,  "for 
we  have  not  yet  come  to  the  conclusion. 
This  customer  of  mine  has  long  had  an 
Essays  of  Elia — first  series,  Hannah — on 
which  I  have  set  my  heart.  I  have  cajoled 
and  flattered,  set  traps  and  made  offers, 
but  he  is  such  a  stubborn  fellow,  and  so 
unreasonable,  that  I  could  not  coax  it  from 
him.  Nothing  short  of  the  monumental 
patience  of  Job  restrained  me  from  giving 
up  the  fight  long  ago.  But  I  hung  on  per 
sistently  and  bided  my  time,  and  to-day 
the  Lord  rewarded  me  and  delivered  him 
into  my  hand.  Now  do  you  see?" 

"Do  I  see,"  said  Hannah,  "that  thee 
has  exchanged  one  book  for  another?  Is 
it  an  exchange?" 

"Exactly — that  is,  almost  exactly.  Of 
96 


The  Bondage  of  B  a /linger 

course  I  could  not  expect  that  he  would 
consent  to  an  even  exchange.  I  cannot 
rob  a  man  even  while  I  best  him,  but  when 
I  recall  that  I  made  the  exchange  with 
merely  the  extra  consideration  of  a  paltry 
five-dollar  bill,  I  could  hug  myself  for  joy." 

"Yet,  Thomas,"  interposed  Hannah, 
very  faintly,  "how  will  the  substitution  of 
one  book  for  another  help  us  in  our  present 
emergencies?  What  advantage  can  we 
draw  from  these  essays,  which  thee  has, 
over  those  which  might  have  come  from 
the  riots?  Of  course  thee  is  right,  dear, 
for  thee  is  always  right,  but  still  I  cannot 
understand,  and  the  grocer's  boy  has  been 
here  again." 

"The  point  is,"  explained  Thomas,  with 
a  reassuring  smile,  "that  this  book  is  really 
worth  much  more  than  the  other.  Even 
to-day,  did  any  real  trouble  confront  us,  I 
could  dispose  of  it  for  a  sum  that  would 
pay  these  trifling  bills  which  are  so  annoy 
ing  to  you.  But  by  putting  it  carefully 
away,  and  waiting  until  I  can  find  the  man 
who  is  really  anxious  to  possess  it,  I  dare 
97 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

not  attempt  to  say  what  it  will  bring. 
There  is  where  the  science  of  book  collect 
ing,  from  a  mercenary  point  of  view,  is 
displayed.  So  you  see  that  I  have  made 
a  bargain  after  all,  and  you  will  acknowl 
edge  that  you  share  my  joy  and  that  we  are 
very  fortunate. ' ' 

And  Hannah,  loyal,  faithful  Hannah, 
who  knew  what  it  was  to  experience  much 
more  fear  and  anxiety  than  joy,  smiled 
bravely  and  went  up  to  Thomas  and  kissed 
him  and  dissembled  with  all  that  adorable 
guile  of  which  woman  is  capable,  while  she 
said: 

"Thy  joy  is  always  my  happiness,  dear, 
and  I  know  it  will  all  come  out  right  in 
good  time.  And  though  our  way  may 
seem  a  little  dark  and  uncertain,  and  we 
are  wandering  in  a  maze  of  difficulties,  thy 
good  judgment  and  hopefulness  are  sure  to 
bring  us  through  if  I  am  but  patient  and 
strong-hearted,  as  I  shall  try  to  be.  We 
shall  triumph  over  all  our  little  troubles  in 
the  future,  Thomas,  as  we  have  triumphed 
in  the  past.  Thee  shall  teach  me  to  be  as 
98 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

cheery  and  sanguine  as  thyself,  and  I  will 
try  to  be  as  brave  as  I  am  happy. ' ' 

Whereupon  these  two  children  embraced 
with  fervor,  and  Thomas  went  off  to  his 
den  to  gloat  over  his  new  treasure  and  see 
that  it  was  properly  catalogued  and  be 
stowed  away.  But  if,  as  the  night  wore 
on,  he  could  have  stood  invisible  in  Han 
nah's  chamber,  and  read  her  thoughts  as 
she  put  up  her  petition  in  humbleness  of 
spirit,  he  might  have  been  stirred  in  his 
love  for  a  greater  treasure.  For  in  the 
privacy  of  her  soul-communion  this  gentle 
creature  prayed: 

"And  Thou  wilt  bless  him  who  is  so 
dear  to  me,  and  prolong  his  days  that  I 
may  the  longer  be  with  him  and  love  him. 
And  Thou  wilt,  in  Thy  great  mercy  and 
wisdom,  so  direct  and  guide  him  that  he 
may  be  weaned  from  his  infatuation  and 
taught  to  walk  discreetly  in  the  paths  of 
safety.  Help  us,  dear  Lord,  for  our  ways 
are  sorely  troubled!" 


99 


ALL  the  children  on  the  street  and  in 
the  neighborhood  knew  Thomas. 
The  little  girls  smiled  on  him  and  the  little 
boys  pelted  him  with  snowballs  or  early 
vegetables  or  small  and  unripe  fruits,  as 
the  season  of  the  year  afforded  weapons. 
These  attentions  were  measurably  lost  on 
Thomas  for  the  sufficiently  conclusive  rea 
son  that  he  was  near-sighted  and  the  boys 
were  bad  marksmen.  It  does  not  follow 
through  reason  of  the  recital  of  these  hos 
tile  demonstrations  that  Thomas  was  not 
fond  of  the  little  folk;  he  who  loves  books 
usually  loves  children,  though  sometimes 
in  the  abstract  and  for  purposes  of  illus 
tration,  as  was  the  case  with  Thomas. 
And  down  in  their  mischievous  little  hearts 
the  boys  liked  Thomas,  whom  they  dubbed 
"Old  Books"  in  recognition  of  his  profes 
sion  and  the  general  nature  of  his  parcels, 
and  whom  they  pelted  merely  because  it  is 
the  formula  of  a  boy's  life  that  whenever 

100 


The 


you  see  anything  to  hit  you  must  hit  it. 
The  little  girls  liked  Thomas  because  on  a 
memorable  occasion  he  had  stopped  to 
rescue  a  kitten  from  the  fangs  of  a  dog 
about  the  size  of  a  cocoanut,  for  it  is  born 
in  little  girls  to  be  tender-hearted  and  ap 
preciative  of  the  nicer  amenities  of  life. 
But  whether  the  children  liked  him  or  he 
liked  them  was  a  question  which  had  never 
offered  itself  to  Thomas's  attention  in  the 
press  of  other  and  seemingly  more  impor 
tant  matters. 

It  was  the  caprice  of  fate  that  one  after 
noon,  as  he  was  returning  from  the  shop, 
Thomas  approached  the  corner  of  the 
street  leading  to  his  house  just  as  a  very 
small  young  woman  on  roller  skates,  with 
a  set  expression  around  the  mouth,  came 
tearing  down  the  sidewalk  to  the  natural 
point  of  intersection.  Just  why  this  young 
lady  persisted  in  turning  to  the  left  when 
the  necessities  of  residence  compelled 
Thomas  to  turn  to  the  right,  and  without 
audible  warning  or  even  telepathic  com 
munication,  is  a  problem  that  may  be  left 

101 


f¥he  Bondage  of  Bal linger 

to  the  psychologists,  but  the  two  turns 
were  accomplished  simultaneously  and  the 
inevitable  happened.  Thomas  carried 
under  his  arm  the  usual  number  of  books 
demanded  by  long  precedent,  and  was 
otherwise  provided  with  parcels  of  a  do 
mestic  nature.  Consequently  when  the 
small  young  woman  precipitated  herself 
full  upon  his  stomach  the  books  and  par 
cels  flew  in  all  directions,  and  as  Thomas 
recoiled  from  the  shock  he  became  con 
scious  of  a  pair  of  plump  little  legs  raising 
themselves  in  the  air  from  a  tangled  mass 
of  varied  and  variegated  clothing. 

"Bless  my  soul!"  exclaimed  Thomas, 
when  it  became  apparent  that  the  cyclone 
had  passed,  "what  has  happened,  and  what 
have  we  here?" 

The  little  legs  wriggled  back  to  earth, 
the  clothing  fell  around  them,  and  very 
slowly  the  head  and  shoulders  of  a  sur 
prised  and  offended  little  girl  came  into 
view.  She  was  a  pretty  little  girl,  with 
dark  hair  that  tumbled  all  over  her  head 
and  face,  with  snappy  black  eyes,  a  pleas- 

102 


Tfie  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

ant  little  nose,  and  the  kind  of  mouth  that 
promised  attractions  of  an  unusual  nature 
at  a  later  period.  A  woman  would  have 
noticed  at  once  that  her  clothing  put  her 
above  the  level  of  the  ordinary  children  of 
the  neighborhood,  but  all  such  signs  of 
opulence  and  distinction  were  lost  on 
Thomas,  who  continued  to  regard  the  cause 
of  his  disaster  with  amused  interest.  The 
little  girl  was  the  first  to  speak.  "Was  it 
you?"  she  said. 

"Partly/'  replied  Thomas,  with  a  smile, 
"and  partly  you.  I  think  we  may  both 
claim  the  honor. ' ' 

The  child  smoothed  down  her  little  skirts 
and  felt  solicitously  of  her  knees.  "I  am 
very  sorry." 

"Which  shows  that  you  are  an  extremely 
polite  little  girl, "  Thomas  answered,  kindly, 
"and  I  am  going  to  ask  your  name." 

"My  name  is  Helen  Bascom,  but  folks 
I  don't  like  call  me  Nellie." 

"That  is  strange.  My  name  is  Thomas 
Ballinger,  and  folks  I  do  like  very  much 
call  me  Tommy." 

103 


The  Bondage  of  EalHnger 

The  little  girl  looked  interested.  "I 
know  you, "  she  said;  "you  live  down  in 
the  cottage  with  Aunt  Thou. ' ' 

This  characterization  of  the  good  Hannah 
appealed  to  Thomas's  sense  of  humor,  and 
he  laughed  uproariously.  "So  you  know 
Aunt  Thou,  do  you?  Well  we  shall  get 
on  famously.  How  do  you  like  her,  now 
that  you  know  her,  and  how  does  it  happen 
that  you  became  acquainted?" 

"We  all  know  Aunt  Thou,"  continued 
the  child,  with  no  abatement  of  her  gravity. 
"She  makes  good  cakes." 

"Yes,"  said  Thomas,  "making  cakes  is 
one  of  her  prime  qualifications.  I  think 
that  was  the  way  she  first  attracted  my 
serious  attention." 

Thomas  had  not  improved  his  opportuni 
ties  to  talk  to  children  and  did  not  choose 
his  words  with  any  reference  to  juvenile 
comprehension.  The  little  girl  stared  at 
him  curiously. 

"Meanwhile,"  he  went  on,  good- 
naturedly,  "you  have  knocked  off  my 
spectacles,  and  I  appear  to  be  out  three 
104 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

books  and  two  paper  parcels.  How  would 
you  like  to  help  me  look  for  them?  Ah, 
here  are  the  spectacles;  thank  you  very 
much.  One,  two,  yes,  these  are  the  par 
cels.  And  the  books.  William  Penn's 
Reflections  on  the  Conduct  of  Human 
Life,  yes;  and  Ricketts's  Defence  of  the 
Revival  of  Printing — that  makes  two; 
and  Caxton's  Sayings  of  the  Philosophers 
— now  we  have  them  all,  and  you  are  a 
very  smart  little  girl. " 

"I'll  carry  them  for  you,  if  you  like/* 
said  the  child.  * 

"Will  you,  my  dear?  Now,  that  is  most 
opportune.  I  was  just  wondering  what 
your  Aunt  Thou  would  say  when  she  saw 
me  coming  down  the  street  with  all  this 
literature;  for,  just  between  you  and  me, 
Helen,  I  don't  believe  this  sort  of  reading 
is  much  in  her  line.  But  I  forgot  to  ask 
you  if  you  were  hurt.  You  are  not?  I'm 
glad  of  that.  Of  course  you  have  no  way 
of  knowing  it,  but  I  am  very  fond  of  chil 
dren.  I  was  a  school-teacher  once." 

Helen  looked  as  if  that  announcement 
105 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

did  not  carry  with  it  any  reason  for  special 
gratification,  but  as  she  was  a  well-trained 
little  girl  she  said  nothing  in  disparagement 
of  the  calling,  and  by  this  time  they  had 
reached  the  door  of  the  cottage. 

"I  don't  think  I'll  go  in  to-day, "  Helen 
remarked,  with  the  most  gracious  conde 
scension,  as  she  surrendered  the  books. 

"That  is  certainly  an  unexpected  blow, " 
replied  Thomas,  delighted  with  the  ingenu 
ousness  of  the  child.  "But  possibly  you 
will  favor  us  some  other  time.  You  shall 
come  and  I  will  show  you  my  books. ' ' 

"Are  they  like  these? "  asked  the  child, 
doubtfully. 

' '  Not  all  of  them.  I  dare  say  we  shall  find 
a  few  that  would  be  interesting  to  you.  So 
you  must  come,  for  I  like  you  very  much. '  * 

"I'll  come,"  said  the  child,  with  a 
solemnity  that  seemed  to  indicate  more  a 
call  of  duty  than  a  visit  of  pleasure,  and 
she  departed  with  great  dignity,  carrying 
her  skates  in  her  hand. 

Much  diverted  by  his  experience  Thomas 
related  the  particulars  to  Hannah,  who 
106 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

immediately  recognized  by  the  description 
and  the  name  the  daughter  of  the  most 
magnificent  householder  along  the  shore. 
"Thee  has  treated  the  little  lady  with 
scant  courtesy,  I  fear,  Thomas, ' '  she  said, 
chidingly. 

"By  no  means, "  replied  Thomas.  "I 
have  invited  her  to  call  and  she  has  ac 
cepted  with  pleasure.  Nothing  could  have 
been  more  ceremonious  or  courteous. ' ' 

"The  child  of  Stephen  Bascom  will  find 
little  to  interest  her  in  our  cottage, 
Thomas. " 

"Well,  I  am  not  so  sure  of  that.  The 
child  of  Stephen  Bascom,  so  far  as  I  can 
see,  is  much  like  any  other  child.  She  has 
already  found  enough  in  your  cakes  to  in 
terest  her,  so  if  all  other  devices  fail  we 
can  fall  back  on  the  kitchen  and  the  pantry. 
If  I  cannot  appeal  to  her  intellectual  side 
we  may  win  through  the  stomach. ' ' 

"I  sometimes  wish  God  had  sent  us  a 
little  child  like  that,  Thomas,"  said  Han 
nah,  looking  wistfully  at  the  children  play 
ing  in  the  street. 

107 


The  Bondage  of  Ba/lmger 

"And  so  do  I,  if  she  could  be  like  you, 
dear, ' '  answered  the  lover,  stooping  to  kiss 
the  old  wife;  "but,"  he  went  on,  gayly, 
"what  would  Betty  do  with  another  child 
in  the  house?  She  complains  now  that  she 
has  too  many  children  to  look  after. ' ' 

The  next  morning  the  little  girl  with  the 
tangled  hair  and  the  roller  skates  was  a 
far-off  memory,  and  as  one  day  quickly 
followed  another  Thomas  completely  for 
got  his  offer  of  hospitality  and  his  promised 
guest.  But  toward  the  end  of  the  week, 
as  he  came  up  the  steps,  and  started  to 
unlock  the  door,  he  heard  a  child's  voice 
come  out  from  the  vines  around  the  porch: 

"How  do  you  do,  Tommy?" 

Startled  by  such  unexpected  familiarity, 
Thomas  turned  quickly  and  saw  coming 
toward  him  his  little  friend  of  the  adven 
ture,  rather  elaborately  dressed,  considering 
her  age  and  size,  but  perfectly  composed 
and  unconscious  of  anything  unusual  in  her 
appearance  or  salutation.  "I  have  come 
to  call,"  she  said. 

"Why,  it's  little  Helen!"  exclaimed 
108 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

Thomas.  "Now  this  is  a  treat.  But  tell 
me,"  he  added,  with  a  twinkle,  "how  did 
you  happen  to  remember  my  name  so  per 
fectly?" 

"Oh,"  answered  the  child,  gravely, 
"you  know  that  you  said  that  people  you 
like  very  much  call  you  Tommy.  And 
you  said  you  liked  me  very  much,  so  I 
must  call  you  Tommy." 

"And  so  I  did,  and  so  you  must,"  said 
Thomas,  overcome  by  such  a  logical  con 
clusion,  "but  ladies  who  call  me  Tommy 
always  kiss  me,  and  I  cannot  let  you 
off." 

As  Helen  showed  no  disposition  to  escape 
the  responsibility,  arid  as  she  accepted  the 
situation  in  the  most  matter-of-fact  way, 
the  ceremony  was  performed  without  un 
necessary  delay.  "Now,"  said  Thomas, 
"since  you  have  been  appropriately  re 
ceived  at  the  portals,  let  us  go  in  and  look 
at  the  splendors  of  this  mansion." 

The  thought  that  he  was  entertaining  the 
daughter  of  a  millionaire  appealed  more  to 
the  humorous  sense  of  Thomas  than  of 
109 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

Hannah,  for  that  good  woman,  while 
recognizing  the  youth  of  the  visitor,  and 
while  drawn  to  her  by  every  motherly  in 
stinct,  could  not  repress  a  shuddering 
dread  that  the  child  was  making  mental 
note  of  the  shabbiness  of  the  surroundings 
and  contrasting  the  narrowness  and  plain 
ness  of  the  cottage  with  the  luxury  of  her 
own  home.  With  all  her  admirable  virtues 
Hannah  was  still  a  woman.  This  uneasi 
ness  was  not  lost  on  Thomas,  who  con 
tinued  to  load  the  little  girl  with  mock 
attentions. 

"You  will  note,  Helen,  I  hope,  that  we 
are  occupying  this  house  only  temporarily, 
or  until  we  move  into  our  new  palace. 
This  is  the  parlor — somewhat  small,  even 
for  our  purposes,  but  the  furnishings  are 
of  the  most  antique,  not  to  say  antiquated, 
pattern.  Here  is  the  dining-room,  com 
manding  a  fine  and  unobstructed  view  of 
the  lake.  Just  beyond  is  the  closet  where 
Aunt  Thou  secretes  her  Napoleon  plates 
and  her  Louis  XVI.  cups  and  saucers. 
And  at  the  left  there,  you  will  see  the 
no 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

pantry,  sacred  to  those  cakes  which  put  us 
on  a  common  footing. ' ' 

But  all  this  raillery  was  lost  on  the  little 
girl,  who  hardly  looked  around,  and  who 
said,  very  simply,  "I  should  like  to  see  the 
books." 

Now,  if  the  good  angel  who  is  supposed 
to  stand  invisible  at  the  side  of  every  child, 
and  provide  against  all  possible  mishaps 
and  peradventure,  had  whispered  in 
Helen's  ear,  he  could  not  have  instructed 
her  to  say  anything  more  pleasing  to 
Thomas  or  more  fortunate  for  herself. 
The  effect  was  instantaneous,  and  the  old 
bookman  reproached  himself  for  his  banter. 
"Surely,"  he  thought,  "a  child  who 
wishes  to  look  at  books  is  no  ordinary  crea 
ture  whose  time  may  be  wasted  exploring 
pantries  and  looking  at  dilapidated  dining- 
room  chairs.  I  see  now  that  I  have  been 
entirely  mistaken  in  this  little  girl,  who  is 
certainly  not  only  intelligent,  but  uncom 
monly  pretty,  and  I  have  no  doubt  that  she 
has  a  fine  mind  which  can  be  directed  to  a 
high  degree  of  intellectuality  notwithstand- 
iii 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

ing  the  presumable  poverty  of  her  home 
surroundings.  This  error  of  mine  illus 
trates  how  carelessly  we  may  misjudge 
those  who  are  appreciative  of  good  things 
and  capable  of  the  better  thought. ' '  And 
then,  in  a  gentle  and  kindly  tone,  he  said: 

"So  you  shall,  my  dear.  I  had  quite 
forgotten  that  we  had  come  to  see  a  differ 
ent  kind  of  antiques.  You  shall  see  the 
books,  and  I  will  tell  you  all  about  them, 
and  one  of  these  days,  when  you  are  older 
and  able  to  read  them  for  yourself,  we'll 
have  famous  times  together — just  you  and 
I,  Helen,  reading  and  talking  and  explain 
ing,  and  incidentally,  collecting. ' ' 

So  up  the  stairs  they  climbed  and  came 
to  the  den,  which  was  found  in  as  admir 
able  disorder  as  ever  charmed  the  fancy  of 
the  most  normal  and  healthy  child.  The 
books  were  piled  indiscriminately  on  the 
table  and  ran  over  the  shelves.  The  pic 
tures  hung  on  the  walls  at  all  sorts  of 
angles,  and  letters  and  manuscript  and 
autographed  poems  were  framed  or  half 
framed  or  pinned  rather  recklessly  on  the 

112 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

doors  and  along  the  window- sashes. 
"Ho,"  cried  the  little  girl,  and  her  eyes 
danced  as  she  took  in  the  bewilderment  of 
objects,  and  she  clapped  her  hands,  "this 
is  lovely!" 

While  Thomas  stood  in  silent  enjoyment 
of  the  child's  ecstasy,  she  turned  to  him 
suddenly  and  asked: 

"Are  you  in  the  grocery  business, 
Tommy?" 

"Why,  no,  dear,"  replied  Thomas,  a 
little  staggered  by  the  abruptness  of  the 
unexpected  question;  "to  be  honest  with 
you,  I  am  not  in  the  grocery  business. 
Why  do  you  ask?  Do  you  see  anything 
here  that  suggests  a  grocery  store?" 

"No,  but  you  have  such  lots  of  beautiful 
things  in  this  room,  and  whenever  we  get 
anything  new  that  we  like  at  our  house, 
father  always  says,  'Well,  we  must  thank 
the  grocery  business  for  this. '  ' 

"That's  the  right  way  to  look  at 
it,"  answered  Thomas,  with  emphasis. 
"Always  be  grateful  to  the  grocery  busi 
ness  if  it  supplies  you  with  the  luxuries  you 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

like.  Never  be  above  the  honorable  means 
that  keep  you  in  what  you  want.  Now,  in 
my  case,  it  is  the  bookshop  business  which 
affords  me  all  these  pleasures.  How 
many  times  have  I  tried  to  impress  this  on 
your  Aunt  Thou,  who  is  usually  a  woman 
of  such  quick  perceptions,  but  she  cannot 
seem  to  understand  it."  And  Thomas 
spoke  with  much  feeling. 

"I  suppose,"  said  Helen,  with  dejec 
tion,  "that  the  reason  we  don't  have  a 
nice  room  full  of  things  like  these  is  be 
cause  we  are  in  the  grocery  business. ' ' 

"Yes,"  replied  Thomas,  pityingly,  "I 
am  afraid  that  is  true.  Of  course  your 
father  has  plenty  of  money  and  can  buy  all 
the  books  you  need.  That  is  not  the  rea 
son.  But  I  dare  say  that  when  a  man 
comes  home  at  night  with  his  head  full  of 
the  price  of  coffee  and  sugar  and  codfish 
and  cocoanuts,  he  has  no  time  to  think  of 
books.  I  cannot  blame  him,"  he  added, 
magnanimously,  "but  I  will  admit  that  I 
am  sorry  for  him." 

The  child  shook  her  head  mournfully  as 
114 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

she  walked  from  one  object  to  another. 
"It's  too  bad  we  are  not  in  the  bookshop 
business. ' ' 

"O,  as  to  that,"  said  Thomas,  sooth 
ingly,  "the  grocery  business  is  not  so  bad, 
and  I  presume  there  are  some  things  about 
it  which  make  it  really  desirable.  I  have 
often  thought  myself,  at  the  end  of  the 
month,  that  it  would  be  quite  worth  while 
to  be  connected  with  a  grocery,  though  at 
other  times  I  do  not  give  it  much  thought. ' ' 

' '  If  you  want  to  go  into  the  grocery  busi 
ness,  ' '  spoke  up  the  child  quickly,  ' '  I  can 
fix  that." 

"You  can  fix  that,  and  how?" 

"Til  tell  my  father  to  take  you  in  with 
us." 

"Really,  that  is  most  kind,"  chuckled 
Thomas,  "but  it  may  be  that  your  father 
will  not  care  to  have  me  for  a  partner." 

"My  father  does  everything  I  say,"  re 
plied  the  child,  imperiously,  and  with  the 
air  of  one  who  considered  the  matter 
already  settled. 

"What  a  little  autocrat  we  have  here,  to 
"5 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

be  sure,"  said  Thomas.  "Let  me  tell  you 
what  I'll  do,  Helen.  Suppose  you  let  me 
peg  away  at  the  bookshop  business  a  while 
longer,  and  then  if  I  do  not  make  a  suc 
cess  of  it,  you  can  take  me  into  the  grocery 
business.  Perhaps  it  would  be  just  as  well 
not  to  say  anything  to  your  father  about  it 
at  present,  for  he  might  be  terribly  disap 
pointed  to  think  what  he  has  lost,  and  when 
we  may,  we  should  always  try  to  keep  un 
pleasant  things  from  our  friends. '  * 

Then  Thomas  took  the  little  girl  around 
the  room  and  showed  her  all  his  treasures, 
and  told  her  of  the  pictures  and  the  great 
men  they  represented.  And  he  allowed 
her  to  handle  the  precious  manuscript — 
letters  that  would  have  brought  fabulous 
prices  at  public  sale — and  explained  to  her 
the  conditions  under  which  they  were  writ 
ten — how,  when  he  was  a  little  boy,  scarcely 
larger  than  herself,  these  famous  men,  long 
dead,  had  written  to  him,  and  how  he  had 
walked  and  talked  with  them  in  the  long 
ago.  But  most  of  all  the  child  wondered 
at  the  old  bookcase,  and  toyed  with  the  big 
116 


Bondage  of  Ballinger 


padlock,  and  peered  curiously  and  longingly 
through  the  glass  doors  at  the  little  brown 
and  faded  books  so  carefully  locked  away. 
This  Thomas  pretended  not  to  see,  but 
afterward  he  confessed  to  Hannah  that  it 
had  excited  his  amazement. 

"I  cannot  hide  from  myself  the  fact,*' 
said  he,  "that  my  meeting  with  this  little 
girl  was  providential  interposition.  There 
is  more  in  her  than  her  parents  and  our 
good  but  somewhat  dull  neighbors  see, 
and  it  is  perfectly  clear  that  heaven  has 
decreed  that  I  am  to  be  the  humble  instru 
ment  to  raise  her  from  her  depressing  en 
vironment.  How  fortunate  it  is  that  I 
turned  the  corner  that  day  just  as  she 
came  down  the  street  under  a  full  head  of 
steam.  Wonderful  are  the  workings  of 
Providence.  '  ' 

Perhaps  it  occurred  to  Hannah,  as  it 
might  have  occurred  to  any  one  of  her 
sex,  that  the  environment  of  a  small  young 
woman  who  was  the  petted  and  only  child 
of  a  many  times  millionaire  was  not  alto 
gether  so  depressing  and  deplorable  as 
117 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

Thomas  feared.  But  she  was  too  loyal  a 
wife  to  dispute  his  conclusions,  so  she 
merely  replied:  "Thee  is  a  wise  instructor 
for  any  child,  Thomas,  and  the  good  Lord 
does  everything  for  the  best." 

It  was  certainly  creditable  to  the  innate 
piety  of  this  worthy  couple  that  whenever 
things  went  satisfactorily  the  Lord  always 
received  full  praise  and  acknowledgment, 
though  neither  Thomas  nor  Hannah  was 
conspicuous  in  church  circles  or  public 
meetings  of  the  elect.  And  if,  on  the 
other  hand,  matters  turned  out  disastrously, 
there  was  no  grumbling  at  the  higher  power, 
or  disposition  to  shirk  the  responsibilities 
of  mortal  weakness  and  error.  As  Chris 
tians  go  in  this  advanced  generation,  the  old 
bookman  and  his  Quaker  wife  were  well  up 
in  the  processionof  unostentatious  believers. 

;'I  have  been  giving  this  matter  con 
siderable  thought,"  said  Thomas,  rather 
solemnly,  "and  I  have  come  to  the  conclu 
sion  that  the  peculiar  attitude  of  Helen 
Bascom  toward  books  is  clearly  the  influ 
ence  of  unexplained  heredity. ' ' 
118 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

"Will  she  never  get  over  it?"  anxiously 
asked  Hannah.  The  thought  of  the  poor 
child  growing  up  and  inviting  domestic 
suffering  by  a  slavish  partiality  for  books 
was  too  much  for  this  excellent  soul's 
maternal  feelings. 

"I  trust  not,"  answered  Thomas,  glanc 
ing  over  his  spectacles  with  a  look  of  mild 
reproach.  "Such  a  holy  passion  should 
be  encouraged.  It  means  a  great  deal, 
Hannah." 

"Yes,  Thomas" — this  very  meekly — 
"it  means  a  great  deal." 

"I  was  going  on  to  say,"  he  resumed, 
"when  you  broke  in  irrelevantly,  that  the 
child  has  all  the  natural  instincts  of  a  book 
lover  and  collector.  Something  in  her, 
which  may  have  skipped,  and  probably  did 
skip,  three  or  four  generations,  draws  her 
as  irresistibly  to  books  as  other  children  are 
attracted  to  ordinary  juvenile  pleasures. 
Else  why  did  she  single  out  that  old  book 
case  for  her  special  admiration?" 

"Perhaps  it  was  the  glass  doors?"  ven 
tured  Hannah. 

119 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

"Nonsense.  Is  it  not  likely  that  she 
sees  plenty  of  glass  doors  at  home?" 

"Then  it  may  have  been  the  padlock. 
That  is  truly  a  very  large  and  striking 
padlock.'* 

"Not  at  all.  You  are  making  the  mis 
take  of  supposing  that  this  is  an  ordinary 
child  and  one  attracted  by  ordinary  objects. 
It  was  the  books — the  peculiar  kind  of 
books  that  always  excites  the  slumbering 
collecting  instinct.  This  is  a  psychologi 
cal  phenomenon  which  she  is  too  young  to 
understand,  much  less  to  explain,  but  I 
understand  it  perfectly,  for  one  true  book- 
lover  is  always  in  sympathetic  touch  with 
another,  and  I  remember  that  I  had  this 
same  bewildering  experience  when  I  was 
her  age.  It  is  plainly  my  duty  to  develop 
that  instinct,  and  I  expect  to  prove  to  you 
that  my  theory  is  correct,  and  that  the 
child  knows  instinctively  not  only  an  old 
book  from  a  modern  one,  but  a  rare  book 
from  the  drug  in  the  market. ' ' 

"But,  Thomas,  does  thee  think  that  her 
parents  will  be  pleased  to  have  thee 

120 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

superintend  her  education?  Perhaps  they 
may  have  other  plans  for  the  little  lady, 
that  will  fit  her  for  the  part  she  must  play 
in  the  great  world,  and  will  be  averse  to 
thy  teaching. ' ' 

"In  the  ordinary  significance  of  the 
word  I  do  not  expect  to  be  her  teacher," 
answered  Thomas,  somewhat  severely, 
"for  I  shall  merely  guide  her  along  certain 
lines,  as  I  was  so  fortunately  conducted 
when  I  was  a  child.  It  means  a  great 
deal  in  the  book  world  to  be  started 
right." 

Whatever  Hannah's  opinions  as  to  this 
may  have  been,  as  formed  from  a  some 
what  rigorous  experience,  she  did  not 
choose  to  express  them,  and  Thomas  went 
on: 

"Our  atmosphere  here,  I  think  I  may 
say,  is  fairly  bookish,  and  our  home  influ 
ence  is  decidedly  beneficial  to  any  child 
who  really  wishes  to  lead  a  studious  life. 
Should  this  little  girl  desire  to  partake  of 
this  atmosphere  and  influence  from  time 
to  time,  we  should  not  deprive  her  of  the 

121 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

opportunity.  In  fact,  her  eagerness  may 
stimulate  us  to  renewed  appreciation  of 
the  blessings  of  books." 

Hannah     smiled.      "God     help     us!" 
groaned  Betty  in  the  kitchen. 


132 


IT  is  not  in  the  least  degree  improbable 
that  had  not  Thomas  Ballinger  felt 
compelled  to  prove  his  theory  in  order  to 
preserve  his  home  reputation  the  experi 
ence  in  the  den  would  have  been  merely  a 
passing  incident.  In  no  small  measure  his 
enthusiasm  was  kept  alive  by  the  little  girl 
herself,  who  had  conceived  a  violent  attach 
ment  for  her  new  friend,  and  who  waylaid 
him  with  such  frankness  and  unconscious 
persistence  that  he  succumbed  as  quickly 
to  her  attentions  as  he  had  previously  sur 
rendered  to  his  curiosity.  Miss  Helen  was 
nothing  if  not  arbitrary,  but  she  made  her 
exactions  so  politely  and  winningly  that  a 
much  more  crafty  man  than  Thomas  might 
have  easily  capitulated.  "  There  is  a  time 
to  skate  and  a  time  to  study,"  he  would 
exclaim,  gayly,  when  he  came  home  in  the 
afternoon  and  found  her  waiting  for  him  at 
the  corner  or  on  the  porch.  And  then 
they  would  go  together  up  into  the  den  and 


The  Bondage  of  Ba  I  linger 

discuss  such  topics  as  an  old  book-gatherer 
and  his  young  disciple  would  naturally 
affect. 

Notwithstanding  Thomas's  brief  and 
somewhat  inglorious  career  as  a  pedagogue, 
he  soon  showed  that  with  an  apt  and  inter 
ested  pupil  he  was  abundantly  qualified  to 
take  the  chair  of  English  literature.  And 
he  found  that  he  must  begin  at  the  begin 
ning,  a  condition  that  pleased  him  greatly, 
for  it  further  bore  out  his  theory  of  an  in 
herited  literary  impulse.  The  little  girl  for 
a  long  time  experienced  the  difficulty  which 
the  student  of  philosophy  encounters  when 
first  he  confronts  the  masters;  much  that 
Thomas  said  went  over  her  head,  for  he 
had  not  yet  learned  the  art  of  talking  to 
children,  and  addressed  her  with  as  much 
formality  and  with  as  stately  words  as  if  he 
were  delivering  an  address  in  a  post-gradu 
ate  course.  Hannah  ventured  to  suggest 
that  he  might  simplify  his  speech  occasion 
ally  for  the  child's  benefit,  but  he  replied, 
loftily,  "What  does  it  matter  how  I  speak 
to  her?  The  girl  has  the  instinct,  and  gets 
124 


The  Bondage  of  Eallmger 

the   meaning    intuitively."     Thomas   was 
true  to  his  theory. 

And  perhaps  he  was  right.  For  the 
little  girl  listened  to  him  with  rapt  attention 
as  he  went  over  the  story  of  his  boyhood 
days,  and  told  her  how  he  had  talked  with 
Mr.  Longfellow  just  as  sociably  and  frankly 
as  he  was  now  talking  with  her.  Indeed, 
it  surprised  him  not  a  little  to  find  that  she 
did  not  appear  to  recall  Mr.  Longfellow, 
as  it  would  have  been  entirely  in  harmony 
with  his  expanding  theory  to  learn  that 
she  had  known  him  well  in  a  previous  in 
carnation.  There  were  some  discrepancies 
in  this  personal  ignorance  which  Thomas 
could  not  reconcile,  and  with  which  he  was 
constantly  at  war.  Then  he  would  go  to  the 
old  bookcase  and  take  out  one  of  the  faded 
books  and  read  to  her  the  human  poems  of 
the  human  singer,  and  they  would  stand 
together  at  the  window  and  look  out  over 
the  great  lake  and  give  full  play  to  their 
romantic  fancies.  It  pleased  them  to  think 
of  the  water-crib,  two  miles  distant,  as  the 
Gurnet  which  the  May  Flower  rounded, 
125 


The  Bondage  of  Ba/Iinger 

"Leaving  far  to  the  southward 

Island  and  cape  of  sand,  and  the  Field  of  the  First 
Encounter." 

The  lighter  ripples  of  the  sand  that 
showed  the  bar  near  the  shore  they  would 
call  the  reef  of  Norman's  Woe,  and  the 
little  yachts  that  danced  and  bobbed  down 
the  lake  in  threatening  proximity  were 
always  associated  in  Helen's  mind  with  the 
ill-fated  Hesperus.  When  she  learned  the 
poem  and  would  recite  it  at  Thomas's  bid 
ding,  taking  her  station  at  the  window 
where  she  could  see  the  bar — and  she  now 
firmly  believed  it  was  the  poet's  reef — the 
tears  would  come  to  her  eyes  at  the  tragi 
cal  conclusion,  while  Thomas  rubbed  his 
spectacles  and  cleared  his  throat  before  he 
ventured  to  say,  "Very  well,  little  Helen, 
very  well!" 

For  days  in  a  musty  shop  and  evenings 
in  an  atmosphere  of  books  had  not  driven 
all  the  sentiment  from  the  old  man's  nature, 
and  this  child,  with  her  strange  enthusiasm 
for  the  things  he  loved,  eagerly  listening  to 
his  stories  of  books  and  bookmen,  and 
126 


The  Bondage  of  Balllnger 

reciting  one  after  another  the  poems  of  his 
fancy,  stirred  up  the  happy  memories,  and 
often  he  would  weep  when  something  in 
the  child's  voice  touched  him  a  little  too 
deeply,  and  he  would  cry  out  at  the  close: 
"This  is  finer  than  the  grocery  business, 
eh,  Helen?" 

"Much  finer,  Tommy,"  the  child  would 
gravely  answer. 

Since  the  day  she  had  startled  him  by 
her  familiar  address  Thomas  had  insisted 
that  she  should  never  call  him  anything 
more  formal  than  Tommy,  and  without  the 
faintest  idea  of  any  impropriety  Helen  had 
obeyed.  The  comradeship  that  existed 
from  the  beginning  between  the  old  man 
and  the  little  girl  grew  stronger  as  the 
months  went  by,  and  whenever  he  was  at 
home  Thomas  was  restless  and  uneasy 
until  he  saw  his  little  bookworm,  as  he 
called  her.  A  less  gentle  spirit  than 
Hannah's  might  have  rebelled  at  this 
partiality,  but  the  child  with  no  less  sure- 
ness  had  found  her  way  as  well  into  that 
motherly  heart,  and  the  joyousness  of  her 
127 


The  Bondage  of  Ealllnger 

young  life  and  the  eagerness  of  her  hope 
and  purpose  had  carried  Hannah  back  over 
the  waste  of  forty  years  to  the  days  when 
everything  had  been  bright  and  beautiful 
to  her  before — before — ah,  what  tragedies 
lie  hidden  in  that  little  word — before! 

On  Saturday  afternoon,  or  at  the  begin 
ning  of  a  long  holiday,  when  the  child  came 
to  the  cottage,  Thomas  would  call  out  to 
her,  "Come,  little  Helen,  let's  go  off  to 
Walden  pond!"  And  down  to  one  of  the 
city  parks  they  would  trudge,  and  Thomas 
would  hire  a  boat  that  they  might  row  out 
on  the  artificial  lake  while  he  told  her  again 
of  his  boyhood  and  of  the  time  when  he 
and  Mr.  Thoreau  were  boon  companions 
in  adventures  by  land  and  water.  Indeed, 
it  is  to  be  feared  that  the  old  man's  descrip 
tions  were  rather  too  glowing  for  the  imagi 
nation  of  the  child,  for  Helen's  youthful 
ideas  of  the  poet-naturalist  pictured  a  giant 
several  feet  higher  than  the  average  man, 
with  arms  like  tree-trunks  and  with  the 
strength  of  a  Titan.  Thomas  himself 
declared  that  never  had  he  seen  a  boat 
128 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

rowed  with  such  skill  and  swiftness  as 
Thoreau  employed,  although,  if  pressed, 
he  would  reluctantly  admit  that  he  had  wit 
nessed  little  or  no  oarsmanship  since  that 
hazy  and  remarkable  period. 

"It  is  truly  astonishing,"  said  Thomas, 
in  one  of  his  philosophic  musings,  "how 
material  things  dwarf  with  age.  I  remem 
ber  distinctly  that  when  1  was  a  boy,  there 
was  a  walnut-tree  back  of  the  old  parson 
age  down  in  Massachusetts  that  stood  at 
least  three  hundred  and  fifty  feet  high. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  of  it;  I  recall  it 
perfectly.  Yet  my  neighbor,  Colver,  who 
spent  a  summer  in  that  neighborhood  a 
year  or  two  ago,  told  me  that  it  had  fallen 
away  fully  eighty  per  cent  of  that  measure 
ment.  It  seems  incredible  that  such 
shrinkage  could  have  been  accomplished  in 
a  few  years,  and  I  was  almost  tempted  to 
write  on  and  secure  the  exact  dimensions, 
but  Colver  is  a  truthful  man,  one  whose 
word  is  to  be  accepted  for  any  ordinary 
narration,  and  I  did  not  like  to  pain  him 
by  implying  any  doubt. ' '  And  Thomas  in 
129 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

his  heart  would  silently  give  thanks  that 
Thoreau  had  passed  away  in  comparative 
youth,  before  the  ravages  of  time  could 
shrivel  that  imposing  figure. 

The  Bascoms  were  mildly  amused  by  the 
interest  their  daughter  took  in  "the  Profes 
sor,  ' '  as  Bascom  was  accustomed  to  desig 
nate  Thomas.  Although  Bascom  knew 
that  Thomas  was  the  proprietor  of  an  old 
bookshop,  and  although  Mrs.  Bascom,  with 
proper  maternal  solicitude,  had  secured 
assurances  that  the  Ballingers  were  respect 
able  and  worthy  folk,  they  had  not  allowed 
their  own  sympathy  to  go  to  greater  lengths. 
The  fact  that  Thomas  was  in  any  way  con 
nected  with  books  conveyed  to  Bascom 's 
mind  the  wholly  inconsequent  notion  that 
he  must  be  a  professor,  in  title  if  not  in 
actual  occupation,  for  Bascom  was  too 
fully  taken  up  with  multitudinous  commer 
cial  interests  to  give  much  thought  to  the 
minor  distinctions  of  the  intellectual  life. 
As  for  Mrs.  Bascom,  to  whom  her  husband 
admiringly  referred  as  "the  Major, "  in  con 
sequence  of  a  commanding  air  in  the  juris- 
130 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

diction  of  the  home,  she  had  her  doubts  as 
to  the  worldly  advantages  arising  from  too 
close  intercourse  with  a  library,  but  she 
was  a  woman  of  affairs  too  engrossing  to 
be  diverted  by  the  whim  of  a  child. 

With  the  passing  of  the  months  the  girl 
began  to  give  evidences  of  beneficial  results 
from  intercourse  with  the  bookman,  and  to 
talk  familiarly  of  bookish  subjects  which 
were  little  more  than  the  memory  of  a 
name  to  her  father.  Bascom's  curiosity 
was  stimulated,  and  when  he  learned  that 
she  could  recite  whole  pages  of  poetry  from 
the  old  man's  library,  he  was  so  pleased 
that  he  declared  that  the  very  next  day  he 
would  lay  in  a  supply  of  books  that  would 
be  a  credit  to  the  British  Museum.  To 
this  Helen  demurred,  and  pointed  out  to 
her  astonished  father  that  such  a  proceed 
ing  would  be  wholly  incompatible  with 
their  position  as  the  head  of  a  large  gro 
cery  business.  For  she  argued  with  reason 
ing  based  on  comparison  that  if  Thomas 
could  not  deal  in  groceries  because  he  was 
so  bookish,  it  naturally  followed  that  peo- 
•  131 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

pie  engaged  in  that  useful  branch  of  com 
merce  should  not  consistently  lumber  up 
their  houses  with  books.  If  this  did  not 
convince  Bascom  it  delighted  him,  and  he 
cried  out,  "Nevermind,  Helen,  we'll  fool 
the  Professor  yet." 

Then  he  would  ask  her  to  recite  her 
latest  lesson,  and  while  she  declaimed  he 
would  rub  his  hands  and  beam  with  pride. 
"You  should  hear  her,"  he  would  say 
enthusiastically  to  his  friends;  "it  is  better 
than  a  show.  At  a  show,  you  know,  you 
are  in  for  several  hours,  but  at  home  I  can 
shut  off  the  oratory  whenever  I  have  had 
enough. ' ' 

As  the  little  girl's  intelligence  expanded, 
her  admiration  for  her  old  friend  increased, 
and  it  seemed  to  her  that  there  was  nothing 
in  the  line  of  intellectual  activity  he  could 
not  accomplish.  In  rummaging  over  his 
books  it  had  perplexed  her  to  find  none 
with  his  name  as  the  author,  and  her  won 
der  increased  when  he  confessed  that  he 
had  never  written  a  book  of  any  sort. 

"And  why?"  she  asked. 
132 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

"I  suppose  because  I  have  not  found  a 
Maecenas." 

" What's  that?"  inquired  the  puzzled 
child. 

"A  Maecenas,"  replied  Thomas,  with  a 
smile,  "was  a  mythological  creature, 
paganish  of  course,  that  is  supposed  to 
have  lived  two  thousand  years  ago.  It 
was  a  good-natured  sort  of  animal,  that  put 
in  its  time  hunting  up  worthy  people,  like 
me  for  instance,  paying  their  bills,  buying 
farms  for  them,  and  giving  them  time  to 
write  masterpieces  without  worrying  over 
incidental  expenses." 

"Was  there  really  any  such  thing?" 

"Well,  history  says  so,  but  I  don't  be 
lieve  it.  It  doesn't  seem  natural;  it  is  too 
good  to  be  true.  I  think  a  Maecenas  was 
just  a  plain  myth,  like  a  centaur  or  a  faun 
or  a  satyr,  such  as  I  have  told  you  about. ' ' 

"But  if  that  kind  of  thing  lived  then, 
why  don't  we  have  it  now?"  persisted  the 
child. 

"Probably  because  there  is  no  excuse 
for  it.  We  could  not  use  Maecenases 
133 


The  Bondage  of  Ealllnger 

now  if  we  had  them,  for  we  have  nobody 
to  write  masterpieces,  and  if  we  had  the 
masterpieces  nobody  would  read  them.  So 
you  see  it  would  be  a  waste  all  around. ' ' 

"Were  women  ever  those  things, 
Tommy?" 

"There  have  been  women  who  did  some 
thing  in  that  line,  Helen,  but  I  fancy  they 
did  not  go  by  that  name.  At  least  I  have 
never  heard  them  called  Maecenases.  I 
dare  say  they  were  myths,  too." 

"Then,"  said  the  child,  firmly,  "when 
I  grow  up  I  am  going  to  do  something  my 
self.  I'm  going  to  be  your — you  know, 
Tommy. ' ' 

And  Thomas  laughed,  but  the  words  of 
his  little  friend  touched  him,  for  does  it  not 
come  to  every  man  or  woman,  struggling 
with  this  tough  old  battle  of  life,  that  when 
the  crisis  is  at  hand  and  all  individual  effort 
fails,  a  Maecenas,  whose  arrival  has  been 
long  delayed,  will  rise  up  to  save?  Is  not 
optimism  a  general  expression  of  a  belief  in 
the  coming  of  the  fairy,  and  is  not  the 
optimist  he  who,  taking  the  buffets  of  fate 
134 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

as  they  may  be  dealt,  lives  on  serenely  in 
the  confident  assurance  that  fortune  while 
lingering  cannot  escape?  Thomas  had 
never  formulated  any  special  views  along 
these  lines,  but  in  all  his  life  of  nearly 
three  score  years  the  question  of  ultimate 
failure  and  poverty  had  not  presented  itself. 
He  knew  only  that  this  is  a  very  delightful 
world,  a  world  wherein  everybody  should  be 
comfortable  and  happy,  with  the  absolute 
certainty  that  in  the  graciousness  of  Provi 
dence  the  good  angel  will  appear  at  the 
fitting  moment.  Thomas  had  acquired  this 
agreeable  philosophy  by  nature;  he  had  not 
seen  the  demonstration  in  any  of  his  books. 
Meanwhile  he  lived  his  own  happy  life  as 
it  came.  Very  closely  the  little  girl  had 
crept  into  his  heart,  and  often  he  would 
come  from  the  shop  a  little  earlier  in  the 
afternoon,  always  with  the  hope  that  he 
would  find  her  waiting  at  the  corner,  as 
eager  to  welcome  him  as  he  to  see  her. 
He  taught  her  to  make  slide  cases  for  the 
old  and  crumbling  books,  and  as  they  put 
tered  over  the  cardboard  and  the  buckram, 


The  Bondage  of  Eallmger 

the  colored  papers  and  the  labels,  he  would 
tell  her  the  story  of  each  book  and  how  he 
obtained  it,  and  how  much  it  was  to  be 
preferred,  even  in  a  tattered  state,  to  the 
gaudy  modern  editions.  Occasionally  his 
conscience  would  reproach  him  as  he  saw 
the  other  children  playing  in  the  street,  and 
he  would  confess  how  selfish  he  was  to  shut 
her  up  in  a  dungeon  with  an  old  ogre  like 
himself,  and  at  this  she  laughed. 

And  at  other  times  it  would  come  home 
to  him  that  the  children  were  frolicking  at 
their  parties,  and  enjoying  themselves  in 
the  manner  of  childhood,  and  he  would 
self-sacrificingly  urge  upon  her  that  it 
would  be  her  duty  very  soon  to  keep  up 
her  position  in  the  world  and  associate 
more  constantly  with  people  of  wealth  and 
fashion  among  whom  her  paths  would  lie. 
But  she  shook  her  head  obstinately. 

"They're  not  our  kind  of  people, 
Tommy.  We  couldn't  stand  'em." 


136 


THE  months  have  lengthened  into 
years,  and  the  years  are  flying 
swiftly,  Thomas  Ballinger.  Your  head  is 
whitening  and  the  stoop  has  come  to  your 
shoulders.  This  boastful  young  fellow  of 
fifty,  whose  cheeriness  and  optimism  noth 
ing  has  been  able  to  daunt,  and  who  dreams 
that  he  has  drunk  from  the  fountain  of  per 
petual  youth,  is  growing  unmistakably  old. 
Those  insignificant  incidents  of  human  ex 
istence,  which  men  call  the  cares  of  busi 
ness,  and  which  you  were  wont  to  toss  off 
so  lightly,  are  now  arising  to  plague  you. 
Even  the  saintlike  Hannah,  who  has  so 
feared  and  trembled  in  the  past,  is  stronger 
and  more  courageous  than  you  as  fresh 
difficulties  come  to  confront  you;  her  long 
watching  and  waiting  have  taught  her  that 
which  you,  in  the  downhill  of  life,  are  be 
ginning  to  learn. 

But     the     realization     comes     slowly, 
Thomas.     Occasional  remorse  may  typify, 
J37 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

but  it  does  not  assure  conversion.  The 
follies  of  a  lifetime  are  not  to  be  overcome 
by  a  few  twinges  of  rheumatism  or  the  first 
intimation  of  a  departure  of  physical 
strength.  You  will  learn  your  lesson 
gradually,  Thomas,  for  you  are  very  frail 
and  human. 

"We're  in  a  bad  way,  Hannah,  a  bad 
way, ' '  he  now  began  to  sigh,  repentantly, 
at  each  new  emergency,  for  emergencies 
were  happening  along  with  uncomfortable 
frequency. 

"Nay,  Thomas,"  replied  his  good  angel, 
with  the  memory  of  experience,  "at  the 
worst,  dear,  we  are  in  the  same  old  way. 
Thee  must  not  worry.  Remember  that  it 
is  our  good  fortune  that  everything  comes 
out  right  in  the  end.  Thee  must  be  brave 
as  thee  has  always  been,  and  we  shall 
soon  conquer  our  troubles.  * ' 

"I  am  going  to  be  brave,"  said  Thomas, 
with  another  burst  of  spirit.  "More  than 
that  I  am  now  going  to  do  something  I 
should  have  done  long  ago.  At  last, 
Hannah,  I  think  I  may  tell  you  with  safety 
138 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

that  I  have  made  up  my  mind  to  sell  my 
books — at  least  so  many  of  them  as  may 
be  necessary  to  clear  up  our  indebtedness 
and  give  us  a  fresh  start  in  the  world.  No, 
do  not  remonstrate,  for  on  this  point  I  am 
determined,  and  I  shall  listen  to  no  objec 
tions.  I  have  dallied  too  long  with  my 
good  resolutions,  but  I  thank  heaven  I  can 
now  see  my  duty  clearly.  The  business 
has  been  going  wretchedly  of  late,  and  you 
may  have  noticed  that  I  have  been  com 
pelled  to  bring  home  some  of  the  most 
valuable  articles  from  my  stock.  But  to 
morrow  I  shall  let  them  go  at  any  price,  if 
only  to  show  you  that  I  have  turned  over 
a  new  leaf,  and  finally  have  conquered  that 
foolish  sentiment  which  has  kept  us  in 
straits  so  many  years. ' ' 

And  Hannah,  good  old  Hannah,  who 
had  listened  to  this  song  through  all  the 
changes  of  the  changing  seasons,  and  had 
long  abandoned  expectation  of  the  peace  and 
serenity  of  life,  could  not  find  it  in  her  heart 
to  reproach  the  fickleness  of  nature  which 
could  bring  nothing  but  renewed  disappoint- 
139 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

ment.     She  stroked  the   silvery  hair,  and 
smiled  her  marvelous  smile  as  she  replied: 

"Thee  knows,  Thomas,  that  I  have 
never  lost  confidence  in  thy  good  heart  and 
thy  love.  Thee  has  always  been  the  best 
of  husbands  to  me,  dear,  and  I  am  content. 
Whatever  thee  finds  in  thy  heart  to  do, 
that  I  will  accept  with  joy  and  gratitude." 

"They  did  well  when  they  named  thee 
Hannah,  'the  gracious  one,'  "  said 
Thomas,  and  his  voice  choked,  "for  thee 
is  gracious  and  loving  beyond  man's 
desert.  Trust  me  once  more,  old  sweet 
heart,  and  thee  shall  see  how  well  thy  con 
fidence  is  repaid." 

In  the  morning  Thomas  went  to  the  shop 
with  determination  written  on  his  face,  and 
with  a  new  and  strong  desire  in  his  heart. 
And  in  the  evening  he  returned  with  Cole 
ridge's  "Sibylline  Leaves,"  the  first  edi 
tion  of  Kingsley's  "Andromeda,"  and  two 
books  from  the  Vale  press.  "It  was  a 
great  day  for  me!"  he  called,  triumphantly, 
to  Hannah. 

Those  same  years  that  had  brought  the 
140 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

wrinkles  and  white  hairs  to  Thomas  and 
Hannah  had  given  strength  and  beauty  to 
the  little  Helen,  for  it  is  the  amiable  trick 
of  Time  to  make  his  compensations  and 
scatter  his  benefits  that  the  ravages  may 
be  forgotten.  And  Helen,  with  that  proud 
consciousness  of  maturing  body  and  mind, 
the  first  significant  development  from  child 
hood,  gloried  in  her  advancement,  and 
would  stretch  herself  to  her  full  height,  lean 
her  fair  young  head  on  the  old  man's 
shoulder,  and  sigh,  with  the  betraying  joy- 
ousness  of  youth  in  her  voice,  "We  are 
growing  old  together,  Tommy."  If 
Thomas  smiled  at  this  pleasant  conceit,  he 
still  at  such  times  looked  back  nearly  sixty 
years  to  the  day  when  he  had  felt  this  sunny 
illusion,  and  realized  how  largely,  after  all, 
age  is  a  matter  of  the  mind. 

The  relations  between  the  master  and  the 
pupil  were  broken  only  by  those  exigencies 
which  must  arise  in  the  life  of  a  young 
woman  who  is  subject  to  the  demands  of  a 
fashionable  education.  The  old  friendship 
was  growing  rather  than  diminishing,  and 
141 


The  Bondage  of  Ealllnger 

had  never  wavered  since  the  day  when,  as 
Thomas  himself  expressed  it,  "she  ran 
into  my  stomach  and  my  life  simultane 
ously.  ' '  With  much  of  the  old  bookman's 
library  she  was  already  familiar,  and  all 
that  was  beautiful  in  poetry  and  romance 
he  had  commended  to  her  in  the  theory  of 
saturation,  for  he  had  a  hearty  scorn  of 
those  who  read  by  rule  and  measurement. 
' '  If  you  do  not  understand  everything  you 
read  now,"  he  said,  "it  will  come  to  you 
by  and  by.  At  least  some  of  it  will  stick, 
and  unconsciously,  in  reading  the  best, 
your  taste  will  be  formed  for  the  best.  As 
for  general  reading,"  he  went  on,  "my 
idea  is  that  it  is  always  safe  to  throw  good 
books  in  a  child's  way  and  let  him  make 
his  own  selection.  Advise  him  or  hint  to 
him  occasionally,  but  never  make  him  read 
a  book  as  a  task  or  a  punishment.  .Let 
him  browse  for  himself.  If  a  child  ever 
has  been  ruined  or  measurably  perverted  by 
the  time  he  has  spent  in  a  library,  or  by 
the  influences  he  has  found  there,  I  have 
never  heard  of  the  case." 
142 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

To  all  of  Thomas's  books  Helen  was 
welcome  whenever  he  stood  by  to  lock  and 
unlock  the  famous  bookcase,  and  stand 
guard  lest  the  precious  volumes  should 
take  wing  and  escape.  "You  are  too 
young,"  he  would  reply  simply  when  on 
these  occasions  she  would  smile  and  jok 
ingly  ask  if  he  were  afraid  to  trust  her. 
But  in  speaking  of  her  he  would  give  vent 
to  all  enthusiasm,  and  encountering  Bas- 
com  one  day  he  made  bold  to  break  forth 
in  this  complimentary  strain: 

"She  is  a  wonderful  child,  sir.  It 
would  gratify  you  to  see  how  intuitively 
she  takes  to  the  best  in  literature.  And 
as  for  a  first  or  a  rare  edition,  I  don't  be 
lieve  you  could  puzzle  her  in  the  Congres 
sional  Library.  If  I  had  possessed  such  a 
nose  as  that  when  I  was  her  age,  Mr. 
Bascom,  I  should  be  the  most  renowned 
bibliophile  in  the  world. ' ' 

And  Bascom,  who  knew  as  little  about  a 
first  edition  as  Thomas  himself  knew  of  the 
fluctuations  in  the  price  of  sugar,  but  im 
mensely  pleased  by  any  tribute  to  his  child, 


The   "Bondage  of  Ballinger 

shook  Thomas  warmly  by  the  hand  and 
answered,  "She  is  indeed  a  wonderful 
child,  Professor."  And  that  evening  he 
sent  up  to  the  astonished  but  gratified 
Hannah  a  largess  of  staples  from  the  town 
"with  Mr.  Bascom's  compliments." 

Thus  matters  stood  when  a  tremor  of 
excitement  running  through  the  neighbor 
hood  intimated  that  something  unusual  was 
happening.  This  proved  to  be  nothing 
less  than  the  fact  of  general  interest  that 
Miss  Helen  had  arrived  at  the  dignity  of 
sixteen  full  years.  Now,  when  the  daugh 
ter  of  such  a  man  as  Stephen  Bascom  is 
sixteen  years  of  age,  it  is  a  day  to  celebrate 
and  remember,  and  it  is  common  justice  to 
the  community  to  admit  that  the  celebra 
tion  and  the  remembrance  were  as  univer 
sal  as  the  proudest  father  and  mother  could 
desire.  The  society  columns  of  the  daily 
papers  testified  to  the  importance  of  the 
anniversary,  and  a  creditable  picture  of  the 
young  woman  lent  grace  and  beauty  to  two 
columns  in  the  most  conservative  family 
journal.  There  were  festivities  of  a  com- 

H4 


The  Bondage  of  Ba  I  linger 

memorative  nature  in  the  afternoon  with 
fireworks  along  the  lake  front  of  the  Bas- 
com  residence  at  night,  and  a  constant 
stream  of  carriages  arrived  and  departed 
with  those  who  had  come  to  participate  in 
so  memorable  a  function. 

And  the  gifts!  It  seemed  as  if  the  en 
tire  city  would  bankrupt  itself  in  its  anxiety 
to  turn  the  head  of  one  poor  helpless  girl. 
Diamonds  from  father,  emeralds  from 
mother,  gold  baubles  and  silver  trifles 
from  uncles  and  aunts,  jeweled  remem 
brances  from  classmates,  schoolmates, 
playmates,  and  every  other  kind  of  mate 
known  to  a  pretty  girl — all  contributed  to 
impress  on  Miss  Helen  the  amenities  of 
the  rich  and  fashionable  life.  Early  in  the 
day  she  had  found  on  the  table  a  clumsily 
wrapped  little  package  with  a  letter  super 
scribed  in  a  trembling  and  uncertain  hand. 
"The best  shall  be  last,"  she  had  said,  and 
had  carried  package  and  letter  to  her  room 
and  put  them  carefully  away. 

But  late  at  night,  when  the  festivities 
were  over,  and  the  guests  were  gone,  and 
145 


'The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

the  happy  day  was  only  a  recollection,  she 
went  back  to  her  room,  took  out  the  pack 
age  and  letter,  and  read: 

My  Dear  Little  Helen: 

Your  Aunt  Thou  has  taken  advantage  of  this  joy 
ful  occasion  to  construct  for  you  a  wonderful  cake 
similar  to  that  which  first  won  your  admiration  and 
our  joint  love.  She  has  embellished  it  with  sixteen 
candles,  and  I  am  sorry  that  I  am  not  the  archbishop 
for  five  minutes,  so  that  I  could  bless  them  as  piously 
and  earnestly  as  my  heart  directs.  For  my  part  I 
have  sent  a  little  gift  which  has  been  long  delayed. 
It  is  not  an  extravagant  present,  and  I  could  desire 
that  fate  or  fortune  had  made  me  a  plutocrat  instead 
of  a  helpless  old  bibliophile  so  that  the  luster  of  my 
offering  might  shine  forth  the  love  I  have  for  you, 
my  dear. 

But  such  as  it  is  I  know  you  will  accept  it  with  full 
appreciation  of  the  affection  and  confidence  it  carries, 
and  with  the  assurance  that  no  one  in  the  world  is  so 
capable  of  employing  it  intelligently  and  lovingly  as 
yourself.  It  means  much  to  me  that  I  am  sending  it 
to  you,  and  I  wish  you  to  bear  in  rnind  that  whenever 
you  use  it  you  are  fulfilling  the  predictions  of  the  day 
you  crept  into  my  heart. 

And  so  you  are  sixteen  years  old !  What  shall  I 
say  to  you  that  may  not  seem  stiff  and  common 
place?  Shall  I  tell  you  how  much  sunlight  and  hap 
piness  you  have  brought  into  my  battered  old  life? 
Shall  I  confess  how  infinitely  brighter  our  cottage 
has  been  for  your  pretty  face  and  cheery  voice? 
146 


'The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

Shall  I  say  that  when  our  little  girl  is  not  there  even 
the  old  den  has  a  dreary  and  forbidding  atmos 
phere? 

No,  I  shall  say  nothing  of  this,  for  you  knew  it 
long  ago,  you  rogue.  To-day  all  your  friends  in  the 
grand  world  will  crowd  about  you,  and  congratulate 
you,  and  compliment  you,  and  tell  you  what  a  fine 
girl  you  are  and  how  all  the  fairies  danced  and  sang 
at  your  birth.  How  happy  it  would  make  me  to  be 
able  to  put  on  the  invisible  cap — to  be  invisible  to  all 
but  you,  my  dear — that  I  might  join  them  and  be  a 
silent  participant  of  your  happiness. 

But  since  that  cannot  be,  I  shall  try  to  fancy  that 
at  some  moment  of  the  day  your  thoughts  may 
wander  to  the  cottage  and  the  den  and  the  two  old 
lovers  whose  hearts  are  going  out  to  their  little  sweet 
heart.  And  if  they  do  rise  before  you,  like  well- 
behaved  and  agreeable  specters,  remember  that  they 
are  wishing  that  all  the  happiness  that  is  worth  hav 
ing,  and  all  the  prosperity  that  is  worth  striving  for, 
and  all  the  gifts  the  wisest  of  the  fairies  and  the  gods 
may  shower,  may  come  to  their  darling  Helen. 

TOMMY. 

And  what  did  Helen  do?  What  any 
tender-hearted,  sympathetic,  affectionate 
young  woman  of  the  mature  age  of  sixteen 
would  have  done.  She  kissed  the  letter, 
with  its  small,  cramped  chirography,  went 
to  the  window,  looked  out  on  the  beauty  of 
the  night  for  quite  two  minutes,  put  her 
147 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

pretty  head  down  on  her  arms  resting  on 
the  sill — and  cried.  Then  she  took  up  the 
package,  opened  it,  and  cried  again. 

It  was  a  duplicate  key  of  the  old  book 
case. 


148 


THE  neighborhood  knew  that  Thomas 
was  in  a  bad  way.     Those  who  had 
lived  in  the  neighborhood  for  such  time  as 
to  make  them  eligible  to  the  proud  position 
of  gossips  also  knew  that  being  in  a  bad 
way  was  to  a  certain  extent  Thomas's  nor 
mal  condition,  but  Betty  had  confided  to 
the  girl  next  door,  and  the  girl  had  com 
municated  to  her  mistress,   and  the  lady 
had   imparted  to   Mrs.   Colver,  and   Mrs. 
Colver  had  promptly  informed  the  whole 
seventh  precinct  of  the  eighteenth  ward  that 
Thomas  was  in  a  way  which   completely 
eclipsed  the  most  remarkable  phenomena 
of    all    previously   hostile   conditions.     In 
short,  Thomas  was  on  the  verge  of  a  com 
mercial  collapse  which  made  the  settlement 
of  affairs  on  the  basis  of  anything  on  the 
dollar    a    financial    impossibility.      It    was 
noted,  and  advanced,  by  the  neighbors  as 
a  singular  coincidence  that  Thomas  with 
ruin  staring  him  in  the  face  did  not  differ 
materially    from    the    Thomas    of    other 
'49 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

panics;  still  Diggs,  who  was  employed  to 
do  a  little  friendly  and  neighborly  detective 
work,  reported  that  a  crash  was  inevitable 
and  that  Thomas  Ballinger  must  go  out  of 
business. 

"The  fact,"  said  Diggs,  "that  Mr.  Bal 
linger  has  been  unconsciously  transferring 
his  business  to  his  own  house  every  eve 
ning  for  a  number  of  years  will  make  it 
easier  for  him  to  bear  up  under  the  blow, 
but  when  a  man  cannot  pay  his  shop  rent 
or  his  clerk's  wages,  or  buy  stock,  it  is 
tolerably  safe  to  assume  that  something  is 
going  to  happen. ' ' 

The  neighborhood  agreed  that  this  was 
a  perfectly  reasonable  assumption,  and  they 
gossiped  over  the  situation  with  such  per 
sistency  that  in  the  very  natural  course  of 
events  the  rumors  reached  Helen,  and  as 
Helen  was  now  a  young  woman  nearly 
seventeen  years  of  age,  with  plenty  of 
decision  and  a  chin  remarkable  not  merely 
for  its  beauty,  but  also  for  a  shape  betoken 
ing  iirmness  of  character,  she  did  not  hesi 
tate  but  went  straightway  to  her  father. 
150 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

"Father,  we  must  do  something  for 
Tommy. ' ' 

"Why,  what's  the  matter  with  the  Pro 
fessor?' 'queried  Bascom,  laying  down  his 
evening  paper  with  his  finger  between  the 
market  reports. 

"The  matter  is  that  he  is  too  old  and 
feeble  to  attend  to  the  bookshop  business, 
and  we  must  find  something  for  him  to  do. ' ' 

"Of  course,  if  you  say  so,  Helen, "  re 
plied  her  father,  indulgently.  "Let  me  see. 
I  think  I  heard  yesterday  that  there  is  a 
vacancy  in  the  canned  fruit  department, 
and  if— " 

"What!"  interrupted  Helen,  with  fine 
scorn,  "Tommy  in  the  canned  fruit  de 
partment?  My  dear  old  Tommy,  with  that 
master  mind,  in  the  grocery  business? 
Absurd!" 

"But,  Helen,"  apologetically  explained 
Bascom,  "really  the  grocery  business  is 
not  so  degrading  after  you  get  used  to  it. 
It  has  helped  us  considerably  at  one  time 
and  another,  and — " 

"Can  you  not  see,  daddy, "  said  the  girl, 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

and  she  slipped  her  arm  coaxingly  around 
his  neck,  "that  Tommy  would  be  the  last 
man  in  the  world  for  a  position  of  that 
kind?  He  is  a  wonderful  man  as  we  all 
know,  but  always  with  books. '  ' 

"Oh,"  replied  Bascom,  brightening,  "I 
see.  Yes,  that's  very  true.  We  must 
not  forget  the  books.  Well,  so  long  as  it's 
books,  suppose  you  send  him  down  to  the 
store  to-morrow  and  I'll  put  him  in  the 
office.  I  dare  say  we'll  find  something  for 
him  on  the  books. ' ' 

Helen  groaned.  "Not  that  kind  of 
books,  daddy  dear.  I  don't  believe  he 
could  add  up  a  column  of  figures  to  save 
his  life;  and  as  for  the  grocery  business,  I 
have  heard  Aunt  Thou  say  a  dozen  times 
he  doesn't  know  whether  he  is  eating  car 
rots  or  turnips.  But  there  must  be  some 
thing  in  a  great  city  like  this  for  a  brilliant 
man  like  Tommy."  And  the  girl's  lip 
quivered. 

When  a  man  of  the  expanding  good  na 
ture  and  large  heart  of  Bascom  has  an  only 
child,  and  that  child  at  any  time  shows 
152 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

evidence  of  a  grief-stricken  spirit,  with  a 
fair  prospect  of  tears,  that  man's  sole 
thought  for  the  moment  is  to  restore  the 
balance  of  happiness.  "There,  there, 
Helen,"  said  Bascom,  anxiously,  "don't 
cry  about  it.  Of  course  we'll  find  some 
thing  for  the  Professor.  I'll  make  it  the 
order  of  the  day  to  attend  to  it,  and  here's 
my  word  that  we'll  have  him  safely  an 
chored  to-morrow. ' ' 

At  this  crisis  in  the  affairs  of  Thomas  he 
seemed  to  be  a  kindly  little  man,  of  that 
age  when  all  that  is  combative  dies  out  of 
the  nature,  and  when  the  mellowness  of  time 
comes  so  gently  to  crown  the  life  of  eager 
ness  and  stress.  His  face  was  clean 
shaven,  rather  remarkably  inclined  to 
roundness  considering  his  years;  his  hair 
was  stringy  and  very  white,  and  his  eyes 
were  naturally  a  dullish  blue,  with  now  and 
then  the  flashes  which  showed  the  fire 
within.  His  frock  coat,  usually  unbut 
toned,  hung  well  down  to  his  knees  and 
exhibited  effects  of  long  service  and  very 
little  personal  attention.  His  trousers 


The  Bondage  of  Ba/Imger 

were  those  of  a  man  of  sedentary  habits, 
evidently  constructed  for  a  person  of  dis 
similar  build,  and  falling  almost  in  folds 
over  his  shoes  and  around  his  ankles.  His 
linen  was  presentable  rather  than  admir 
able,  the  collar  reaching  well  up  to  the  chin 
and  surrounded  by  a  stock  that  mutinied 
and  shifted  its  position  long  before  the  day 
gave  evidence  of  declining.  Taken  all  in 
all,  and  at  a  cursory  glance,  he  did  not 
appear  exactly  to  bear  out  the  assertion 
sworn  to  by  Stephen  Bascom,  that  he  was  a 
man  of  a  thousand. 

Yet,  when  Stephen  Bascom  spoke  soci 
ety — commercial,  political,  and  literary — 
stopped  to  listen.  For  Mr.  Bascom,  what 
ever  may  have  been  his  other  qualifica 
tions,  could  write  his  check  for  a  sum  con 
siderably  in  excess  of  a  million,  and  his 
word  withal  was  as  good  as  his  check. 
Was  it  not  Bascom,  the  leading  wholesale 
grocer  not  only  of  the  city  but  of  the  West, 
who  made  the  Shapleigh  Library  possible? 
When  the  Art  Museum  fell  into  dire  straits, 
who  first  came  to  the  rescue  with  a  proffer 
J54 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

of  fifty  thousand  dollars?  Bascom.  When 
the  permanent  orchestra  idea  was  agitated, 
who  said  ' '  Push  it  along, ' '  and  sent  a  large 
subscription  as  earnest  of  good  feeling? 
Bascom.  "I  don't  know  a  nocturne  from 
a  kettle-drum,"  said  this  big-hearted 
Maecenas,  "but  if  a  permanent  orchestra 
is  the  thing  we've  got  to  have  it."  And 
when  Pohlsen,  the  art  connoisseur,  made 
his  annual  trip  to  Europe,  who  took  him 
aside  and  said,  "Gus,  if  you  see  anything 
over  there  this  town  ought  to  own,  pick  it 
up"?  Bascom.  And  so  the  town  waxed 
fat  and  prospered  mightily,  and  all  through 
the  public  spirit  and  lavish  generosity  of 
Bascom. 

Sanford,  the  librarian,  was  highly  hon 
ored  and  not  a  little  flustered  when  Bascom 
stepped  briskly  into  his  private  office  and 
requested  five  minutes'  conversation.  Five 
minutes  to  a  man  like  Bascom,  and  just  at 
the  busy  time  of  the  morning,  was  a  tre 
mendous  concession  to  the  market,  and 
Sanford  was  not  slow  in  appreciating  the 
exigency  of  the  interview.  In  exactly  five 


"The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

minutes  the  stenographer  opened  the  door 
just  as  Bascom  was  rising  from  his  chair, 
and  saying: 

"As  to  the  salary,  Sanford,  let  that  be 
a  secret  between  us.  I  suppose  the  asso 
ciation  could  allow  eight  or  ten  dollars  a 
week,  and  you  know  where  to  send  for  the 
rest." 

The  next  day  Thomas  appeared  at  the 
Shapleigh  Library,  received  the  news  of  his 
appointment  to  a  position  of  public  respon 
sibility  in  the  section  devoted  to  Ameri 
cana,  first  editions,  and  freak  books,  and 
expressed  his  willingness  to  enter  at  once 
upon  the  arduous  duties  of  that  important 
assignment.  His  desk  was  placed  in  the 
little  alcove  just  off  the  grand  staircase. 
The  first  impressions  of  those  who  took 
a  peep  at  him — and  nobody  could  very 
well  enter  the  Shapleigh  Library  with 
out  encountering  this  amiable  vision — were 
that  an  old  bibliophile  with  more  time  than 
occupation  had  chosen  a  safe  retreat  for  a 
quiet  hour  with  a  neglected  volume  or  a 
long-forgotten  pamphlet.  But  the  regular 
156 


"The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

visitor,  the  man  to  whom  an  excursion  to 
the  public  library  is  a  part  of  the  settled 
order  of  the  universe,  and  who  would  as 
soon  think  of  going  without  his  breakfast 
as  without  his  daily  conference  with  the 
books,  always  stopped  at  the  head  of  the 
stairs,  popped  his  head  into  the  alcove,  and 
with  a  nod  or  a  smile,  said,  ''Good  morn 
ing,  Mr.  Ballinger. "  Whereupon  Thomas 
turned,  rose  very  dignifiedly  from  his  chair, 
ran  his  finger  along  the  page  he  was  read 
ing,  shoved  his  spectacles  high  on  his  fore 
head,  bowed  with  great  precision,  replying 
with  the  most  ceremonial  courtesy,  "Good 
morning,  sir,"  and  without  abating  his 
gravity,  resumed  his  sitting  and  his  study. 
Notwithstanding  the  very  explicit  char 
acterization  of  Thomas's  duties,  the  precise 
nature  of  his  labors  never  bore  in  very 
strongly  on  the  public.  At  ten  o'clock 
every  morning  he  appeared,  prompt  to  the 
minute,  and  at  four  o'clock  every  afternoon 
he  disappeared,  with  as  little  ceremony  in 
the  one  case  as  the  other.  In  the  inter 
vening  hours  he  sat  in  the  alcove,  as  re- 


'The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

lated,  poring  over  a  book,  from  which 
public  service  he  was  diverted  only  to  say 
"Good  morning"  or  "Good  afternoon," 
or  to  answer  an  occasional  inquiry  con 
cerning  a  book  long  out  of  print,  or  to  settle 
the  question  of  a  first  edition.  It  never 
occurred  to  Thomas  that  he  was  over 
worked  or  underworked;  that  his  position 
was  a  burden  or  a  sinecure;  that  he  did 
not  earn  his  salary  or  that  his  compensa 
tion  was  insufficient.  In  fact,  such  was 
the  equableness  of  his  temperament,  and 
such  the  engrossing  nature  of  his  literary 
meditations,  that  he  thought  nothing  at  all 
about  it. 

In  consideration  of  the  discovery  that 
there  were  two  bookstores  and  two  antique 
shops,  to  say  nothing  of  several  under 
ground  lairs  for  bibliophiles,  between  the 
library  and  the  spot  where  Thomas  took 
the  car  for  home,  Bascom,  with  that  subtle 
business  acumen  which  had  brought  him 
such  brilliant  success  in  life,  devised  that 
Thomas  should  draw  only  a  small  fraction 
of  his  salary,  and  that  the  rest  should  be 
158 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

intrusted  to  the  custody  of  Hannah,  who 
could  be  relied  on  to  see  that  it  was  ex 
pended  in  the  necessary  channels.  To 
this  wise  arrangement  Thomas  did  not 
demur.  It  was  to  him  merely  a  matter  of 
business  detail  which  was  not  worth  con 
sidering,  so  he  dismissed  it  from  his  mind. 
But  the  habits  of  life  are  stronger  than 
even  the  wisest  of  us  may  suspect,  and 
Thomas  had  been  for  so  many  years  accus 
tomed  to  the  stress  and  turmoil  of  neg 
lected  domestic  economy  that  the  specter 
was  ever  before  him.  It  was  true  that 
Hannah  no  longer  confronted  him  with 
papers  which  demanded  at  least  the  cour 
tesy  of  inspection,  and  that  Betty  had 
ceased  to  give  warning;  he  felt  that  the 
one  was  keeping  away  from  him  a  burden 
that  he  should  assume,  and  he  openly 
accused  the  other  of  conspiring  to  rob  his 
declining  years  of  a  gentle  irritant.  He 
compared  himself  to  the  monk,  who  having 
worn  a  hair  shirt  for  many  years,  finds 
that  instead  of  a  penance  it  has  become  a 
positive  necessity.  But  Thomas  did  not 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

complain  persistently  of  this  neglect, 
though  he  occasionally  confessed  that  it 
saddened  him  to  think  he  was  leading,  so 
undeservedly,  so  luxurious  a  life. 

Now  that  Bascom  had  enrolled  Thomas 
in  his  book  of  philanthropic  endeavor,  and 
had  seen  the  beneficial  results  of  his  well 
doing,  it  suggested  itself  to  him  that  it 
would  be  advisable  to  apply  his  excellent 
business  principles  to  further  schemes  for 
Thomas's  benefit.  He  had  often  heard 
Helen  speak  of  the  remarkable  literary 
treasures  in  the  old  den,  a  revelation  cor 
roborated  by  Sanford,  the  librarian,  and  he 
evolved  a  scheme  whereby  everybody 
might  be  benefited,  and  Thomas  himself 
the  most  of  all.  "The  trouble  with  most 
of  these  literary  fellows, "  he  argued,  "is 
that  they  do  not  treat  literature  as  a  com 
modity.  What's  the  good  of  a  book  if  it 
doesn't  sell?  A  man  in  my  line  of  busi 
ness  would  never  think  of  trying  to  put 
anything  on  the  market  for  which  there  is 
no  demand,  or  of  stocking  up  with  ma 
terial  he  can't  dispose  of,  or  worse  than 
160 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

that,  he  doesn't  try  to  dispose  of.  The 
whole  system  is  wrong,  and  when  people 
tell  me  that  this  writer  died  in  wretched 
poverty,  and  that  writer  committed  sui 
cide,  I  know  he  has  been  handling  dead 
stock.  I  understand  where  the  trouble  lies 
and  I  think  I  can  straighten  it  out." 

Accordingly  this  capable  man  of  busi 
ness  slipped  quietly  out  of  his  house  one 
evening,  went  over  to  the  cottage,  and 
informed  Hannah  that  he  had  come  to  lay 
a  business  proposition  before  Thomas. 
Possibly  Hannah  might  have  suggested 
that  anything  in  the  line  of  business  might 
be  with  more  propriety  communicated  to 
herself,  but  she  was  so  overcome  by  the 
honor  of  the  unexpected  visit  that  she 
directed  him  at  once  to  the  den,  where 
Thomas  sat,  pasting  a  very  yellow  letter 
in  a  very  shabby  little  book.  Bascom's 
brisk  eye  took  in  the  entire  room,  with  its 
bookcases,  shelves,  pictures,  and  scattered 
manuscript. 

"You  have  some  fine  treasures  here, 
Ballinger." 

161 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

"Yes,"  said  the  old  man,  with  pride  in 
his  voice,  "they  are  indeed  treasures." 

"Do  you  get  anything  out  of  them?" 

"Do  I  get  anything  out  of  them?" 
echoed  Thomas,  surprised  by  the  question; 
' '  I  get  everything  out  of  them.  They  have 
been  my  companion,  my  joy,  for  years. ' ' 

"Yes,  I  know,  of  course,  but  I  don't 
mean  that.  Do  they  bring  you  in  any  in 
come?  What's  the  actual  return?  In 
short,  what  do  you  get  on  the  financial 
investment?" 

Thomas  was  dazed.  He  looked  at  Bas- 
com  without  replying,  and  the  philanthrop 
ist  was  encouraged  to  proceed: 

"Because,"  he  said,  cheerily,  and  giving 
Thomas  a  friendly  slap  on  the  shoulder, 
"I  have  come  over  to  make  you  an  offer. 
It's  a  matter  I've  been  thinking  about  a 
good  deal  lately,  and  it's  a  shame  that  so 
much  material  as  you  have  here  should  not 
be  realizing  anything.  It  isn't  business 
like,  my  friend,  and  you  shouldn't  do  it. 
Now,  I  admit  that  books  and  all  this  sort  of 
thing  you  have  here  are  a  little  out  of  my 
162 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

line,  and  I  may  be  over  or  under  the  mark, 
but  I  tell  you  what  I'll  do.  I'll  give  you 
ten  thousand  dollars  for  the  contents  of  this 
room  just  as  it  stands.  And  I'll  do  it  on 
Helen's  judgment.  What  do  you  say?" 

Thomas  looked  up  quickly.  "Did  Miss 
Helen  send  you  over  on  this  errand?"  he 
asked. 

"Lord  bless  you,  no!  Helen  doesn't 
know  a  thing  about  it.  To  be  outright 
with  you,  it's  a  little  surprise  for  her." 

The  old  man  appeared  somewhat  relieved 
by  this  information.  "It's  a  little  surprise 
for  me  as  well, ' '  he  answered,  quietly. 

"Well,  what  do  you  think  of  it?" 

Thomas  slowly  shook  his  head. 

"Now,  as  I  said,"  pursued  Bascom,  "I 
don't  know  much  about  this  business,  and 
I  dare  say  I  have  hit  under  the  mark. 
We're  neighbors  and  friends,  and  I  don't 
care  to  drive  a  hard  bargain  or  appear 
mean,  so  I'll  make  it  fifteen  thousand  dol 
lars  and  run  my  chances.  And  I  don't 
mind  telling  you  that  I  intend  to  make  a 
present  of  the  collection  to  the  library,  if 
163 


The   "Bondage  of  Ballinger 

you  sell,  for  I  shouldn't  know  what  to  do 
with  all  this  mass  of  matter  in  my  house  if 
I  had  it.  And  we'll  call  it  the  Ballinger 
collection.  You  see  it  isn't  bringing  you 
in  a  cent  as  it  lies  here.  You  sell  the 
goods  to  me  for  fifteen  thousand  dollars 
and  I'll  invest  the  money  for  you  at  five 
per  cent.  That  will  give  you  seven  hun 
dred  and  fifty  dollars  a  year,  and  the  books 
will  go  to  the  library  where  they  will  be 
well  taken  care  of.  It  will  be  a  good 
thing  all  around. ' ' 

Thomas  stood  up  with  great  dignity. 
"Mr.  Bascom,"  he  said,  "I  thank  you  for 
what  you  evidently  intend  as  a  kindness, 
mistaken  though  it  is.  You  have  been  a 
good  friend  and  a  kind  neighbor,  and  I 
fully  appreciate  the  value  of  your  interest 
in  me.  I  am  sure  that  you  wish  to  be 
friend  me  now,  and  I  am  really  glad  that 
you  are  not  a  bookman  and  cannot  realize 
the  amazing  and  preposterous  offer  you 
make." 

Bascom  stared.  "Surely,"  he  asked, 
"you  do  not  mean  to  say  that  the  offer  is 
164 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

not   large   enough;    that   fifteen  thousand 
dollars—" 

' '  I  mean  to  say, ' '  interrupted  Thomas, 
"that  no  offer  can  be  large  enough.  I  am 
a  poor  man,  Mr.  Bascom,  and — but  what 
is  the  use?  You  would  not  understand. 
Let  us  drop  the  subject. ' ' 

"Now,  see  here,  Ballinger, "  argued 
Bascom,  "you  know  that  I'm  not  selfish 
in  this  matter,  and  that  I'm  not  out  for 
anything  for  myself.  At  the  same  time, 
in  making  this  investment,  I  expect  to  get 
somewhere  near  value  received,  so  it  is 
just  a  plain  matter  of  business.  You  must 
have  read  these  books  a  hundred  times;  in 
fact,  my  daughter  tells  me  that  you  know 
them  by  heart.  So  they  cannot  be  of  any 
special  use  to  you  in  the  way  of  knowledge. 
I'll  own  that  they  are  interesting  and  valu 
able  as  curiosities,  or  first  editions,  or  some 
thing  like  that,  but  all  the  same  they're  a 
dead  loss  to  you.  Better  be  practical  and 
think  it  over.  With  the  salary  you  are 
now  making  and  this  regular  income  you'll 
be  fixed  for  life." 

165 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

But  Thomas,  still  holding  up  his  hands 
protestingly,  kept  repeating:  "You  cannot 
understand,  Mr.  Bascom;  you  cannot 
understand." 

Somewhere  from  the  recesses  of  Bas 
com 's  consciousness  it  began  to  dawn  that 
he  had  blundered,  though  by  the  applica 
tion  of  every  sound  business  principle  he 
had  committed  himself  to  fair  and  intelli 
gent  dealing.  A  modest  and  good-natured 
man  was  Bascom,  and  with  all  the  instincts 
of  generosity  he  reproached  only  himself 
for  the  failure  of  his  mission.  But  why 
had  he  failed?  Surely  he  had  made  a 
business-like  proposition  in  a  business-like 
way,  and  if  Ballinger  had  been  a  business 
man — "I'll  go  home  and  ask  Helen,"  he 
said  to  himself,  and  bowed  his  way  out 
with  profuse  apologies. 

Helen  listened  to  his  story  in  amazement. 
"Surely,  father,"  she  cried,  "you  didn't  do 
that?" 

"Didn't  do  what?"  Bascom  felt  his 
temper  rising.  "Bother  all  this  mystery! 
What  have  I  done?  Have  I  tried  to  com- 
166 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

mit  burglary  or  highway  robbery  because  I 
offered  a  man  fifteen  thousand  dollars  for 
a  lot  of  old  books  and  tried  to  make  them 
a  source  of  profit  to  him  instead  of  a 
purely  dead  investment?  Am  I  going  to 
be  arrested  as  a  criminal  because  I  tried  to 
help  the  Professor  in  what  seemed  to  me  a 
legitimate  way?" 

"But,  father,  you  do  not  understand." 

"That's  exactly  what  he  said.  Of 
course  I  don't  understand.  If  I  did  why 
should  I  be  worrying  over  what  it  all  means 
and  coming  to  you  to  find  out?" 

The  girl  came  up  to  him,  put  her  hands 
affectionately  on  his  shoulders,  and  looked 
him  squarely  in  the  face.  "Dear  old 
daddy,  let  me  ask  you  a  question:  would 
you  sell  me?" 

Now,  Bascom,  who  was  a  lion  in  a  corner 
on  the  market  or  in  any  sort  of  business 
emergency,  was  a  very  lamb  under  the  spell 
of  his  daughter.  "Of  course  I  wouldn't 
sell  you,  Helen,"  he  answered;  "though 
the  way  things  are  going  nowadays,"  he 
added,  reflectively,  "you  may  sell  yourself. 
167 


'The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

But  that  wasn't  a  fair  question.  The 
cases  are  different.'1 

"No,  they  are  not,"  persisted  Helen. 
"Can't  you  see  that  you  are  asking  Tommy 
to  do  that  very  thing?  His  books  are  his 
children,  and  they  are  as  dear  to  him  as  I 
hope  I  am  to  you.  He  would  no  more 
think  of  parting  with  them  for  money  than 
you  of  selling  me.  Dear  me,"  she  added, 
pathetically,  ' '  I  wish  you  had  not  done  it. ' ' 

"So  do  I  now,"  said  the  abashed  Bas- 
com,  "but  how  was  I  to  know  that  he  felt 
that  way?  Who  would  have  supposed 
that  he  would  have  taken  a  business  matter 
so  much  to  heart,  knowing  that  he  was 
dealing  with  a  business  man?  I  have 
always  thought  that  books  are  merchan 
dise,  and  here  I  learn  that  they  are  human 
beings.  It's  a  wonder  they  kept  quiet  in 
their  cases  while  I  was  bargaining  with  the 
Professor.  What  shall  I  do  now?  Shall 
I  call  him  up  to-morrow  and  apologize?" 

"No,"  replied  Helen,  with  a  smile, 
"you  leave  that  to  me.  You  men  are  so 
stupid  in  such  things.  I  wonder  what  you 
1 68 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

would  do  if  you  did  not  have  me  to  smooth 
over  your  blunders  and  keep  you  straight. ' ' 

And  Bascom,  the  mighty  Bascom,  the 
ruler  of  the  market,  the  dictator  of  corpo 
rations,  the  colossus  of  finance,  withered 
under  this  parting  shot  and  crept  humbly 
off  to  bed. 

But  Thomas,  in  the  solitude  of  his  den, 
was  gradually,  and  very  perceptibly,  re 
covering  from  his  righteous  indignation. 
He  could  not  conceal  from  himself  the 
knowledge  that  he  had  been  insulted, 
grievously  insulted,  but  the  insult  was 
neither  malicious  nor  wanton.  In  short,  it 
may  not  have  been  intentionally  an  insult 
— merely  a  blunder  on  the  part  of  a  man 
unacquainted  with  the  ethics  of  the  book 
ish  life.  For,  after  all,  he  reasoned,  Bas 
com  was  a  man  of  kind  heart  and  charitable 
proclivities,  one  who  had  more  than  once 
shown  his  good  feeling;  was  it  not  right 
then  to  overlook  this  lapse  and  refuse  to 
harbor  it  against  him?  Did  he  not  dis 
tinctly  say  fifteen  thousand  dollars?  A 
goodly  sum  that,  and  enough  to  satisfy  the 
169 


Bondage  of  Ballmger 


wants  of  any  modest  man.  The  sale  of 
one's  library  was  not  to  be  thought  of 
under  any  conditions  that  Thomas  could 
imagine,  but  fifteen  thousand  dollars! 

He  looked  about  the  room.  Every  pic 
ture  was  in  its  place,  every  book  was  on  its 
shelf,  and  it  seemed  to  him  that  they  were 
unusually  cheerful  and  were  bowing  their 
acknowledgments  of  his  affection  and  mag 
nanimous  action.  He  put  down  the  win 
dow  and  sprang  the  catch.  Then  he  went 
softly  out  of  the  door  and  locked  it.  All 
of  which  might  have  been  exceedingly 
annoying  to  Mr.  Stephen  Bascom,  million 
aire  and  the  soul  of  integrity,  could  he 
have  witnessed  it. 

Very  quietly  down  stairs  went  Thomas, 
and  at  each  step  the  thought  of  the  wealth 
that  might  be  his  gave  him  a  sudden  jolt 
and  an  uncomfortably  dizzy  feeling.  For 
the  stairs  creaked  dismally  and  each  creak 
seemed  to  say:  "Fifteen  thousand  dollars, 
Thomas!  Think  of  that,  Thomas!  Think 
of  that!"  And  Thomas  did  think  of  it, 
and  so  effectually  that  when  he  reached 
170 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

Hannah's  room  he  was  in  quite  a  state  of 
mind  for  one  usually  so  calm  and  self- 
contained. 

Hannah  was  sitting  comfortably  in  her 
low  rocking-chair,  disposing  of  certain  ac 
cumulations  of  household  interest,  when 
Thomas,  whose  calls  at  this  hour  of  the 
evening  were  infrequent,  entered,  drew  a 
chair  near  her  own  and  said: 

"What  do  you  think  of  fifteen  thousand 
dollars,  Hannah?" 

Good  Hannah  had  been  well  brought  up 
in  the  school  of  adversity  and  was  not  ac 
customed  to  give  an  opinion  in  a  matter 
involving  such  magnificence  of  calculation. 
Moreover,  she  had  enjoyed  much  experi 
ence  with  Thomas's  system  of  finance, 
So  she  simply  smiled  and  shook  her  head 
and  answered  gravely:  "There  are  some 
things  we  must  not  think  about,  dear.  It 
is  not  given  to  us  to  worry  over  matters 
that  are  beyond  our  reach.  We  should  try 
to  take  our  happiness  as  it  comes,  and  be 
content." 

"But,"  persisted  Thomas,  "suppose 
171 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

new  happiness  is  within  our  reach.  Sup 
pose  it  is  given  to  us  to  concern  ourselves 
with  new  matters.  Suppose  that  such  a 
sum  as  I  have  mentioned  could  be 
ours. '  * 

Again  Hannah  shook  her  head.  "Thee 
must  not  indulge  in  such  fancies,  Thomas. 
All  our  expectations  are  gone  with  our 
dear  parents  who  died  many  years  ago. 
Our  friends  are  kind,  but  their  little  store 
is  nothing  to  us.  Do  not  speculate  wildly, 
dear.  Be  satisfied  with  the  fortune  heaven 
has  sent  us." 

"To  be  satisfied  is  one  thing,"  replied 
Thomas,  "and  to  take  new  happiness  is 
another."  Then  leaning  over  with  the 
tenderness  of  speech  and  action  so  irresist 
ible  to  the  old  Hannah,  he  said:  "Thy 
father  was  right,  sweetheart;  I  am  but  an 
ill  mate  for  any  woman,  and  I  have  proved 
but  a  sorry  husband  to  thee. '  * 

The  tears  sprang  to  the  old  wife's  eyes. 

"Nay,  Thomas,  how  often  must  I  protest 

how  good   thee   is,    and   what   a   lifelong 

comfort  thy  love  and  tenderness  have  been. 

172 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

Thee  shall  not  reproach  thyself  with  such 
unworthy  thoughts. ' ' 

"I  shall  reproach  myself  no  longer," 
cried  Thomas.  "Listen,  Hannah.  We 
shall  be  rich  beyond  all  the  hopes  and  ex 
pectations  of  youth,  rich  beyond  my  power 
of  telling.  Every  wish  of  thine  shall  be 
gratified  and  every  promise  I  made  ful 
filled." 

"Thee  is  dreaming,  Thomas.  Do  not 
delude  thyself  with  such  idle  hopes.  * ' 

"I  am  not  dreaming,  Hannah.  Long 
ago  I  thought  it  all  out,  and  now  I  see  the 
way  to  make  my  boasting  good.  We  shall 
be  rich,  rich,  Hannah.  And  first  of  all 
thee  shall  have  the  changes  in  the  cottage 
thee  has  so  long  desired. ' ' 

"Thomas!" 

"And  thee  shall  dress  according  to  thy 
station  and  thy  beauty,  old  sweetheart. 
Thee  shall  have  everything  to  accord  with 
thy  new  position,  even  perhaps  a  carriage. " 

"Thomas!" 

The  old  bookman  walked  the  floor  in  his 
growing  excitement.  "Oh  it  is  a  happy 
'73 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

moment  for  me  that  I  can  stand  here  and 
think  of  the  pleasures  that  are  coming  to 
us.  We  shall  go  back  to  the  old  home, 
Hannah,  where  we  first  played  together, 
and  over  the  sunny  scenes  of  our  childhood. 
Do  you  remember  the  little  parsonage, 
Hannah?  Do  you  recall  how  the  honey 
suckle  and  the  clematis  climbed  over  the 
porch,  and  how  those  beautiful  hills  looked 
down  on  the  valley?  Have  you  forgotten 
how  often  we  followed  the  little  brook  up 
the  mountain  road  and  sat  at  the  spring, 
and  how  we  talked  of  what  we  would  do 
when  we  were  old  enough  to  go  out  into 
the  great  world?  And  don't  you  remember 
the  last  time  we  were  there  together, 
Hannah,  and  what  I  said?  Did  I  not 
promise  that  go  where  we  might  I  should 
one  day  bring  you  back  to  that  happy 
place?  And  I  shall  keep  my  word,  Han 
nah,  for  it  has  all  come  true." 

"Thomas!"     Hannah  rose  and  put  her 

hand   soothingly  on   the    old   man's   arm. 

"I    am   frightened  to   hear   thee   talk   so 

wildly.     What   is   this   fortune   which   so 

174 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

moves  thee?  What  unexpected  chance 
has  come  into  our  life  that  we  shall  have 
all  this  luxury?" 

At  Hannah's  touch  Thomas  started. 
He  looked  into  those  gentle  eyes,  and  a 
sudden  wave  of  recollection  rushed  over 
him.  But  the  exultation  had  not  quite 
died  out  of  his  voice  as,  dropping  his  head, 
he  said: 

"I  refused  fifteen  thousand  dollars  for 
the  books  to-night." 


DISQUIETING  rumors  pervaded  the 
neighborhood.  Strange  men  with 
evil  faces  and  evident  malevolent  intentions 
had  been  seen  at  various  times  hovering 
near  the  little  cottage,  scrutinizing  it  front 
and  back,  measuring  distances  with  the 
tape,  and  jotting  down  mysterious  conclu 
sions  in  small  books.  Their  replies  to  the 
natural  demands  as  to  their  business  were 
evasive,  and  this  merely  added  to  the 
general  alarm  and  suspicion.  The  inter 
communication  of  the  domestics  failed  to 
solve  the  problem;  even  Mrs.  Colver  ad 
mitted  that  she  was  wholly  baffled,  and  as 
a  last  resort  the  services  of  Diggs  were 
demanded,  as  a  neighborly  duty,  to  get  at 
the  bottom  of  the  plot,  for  that  it  was  noth 
ing  short  of  a  plot  the  neighborhood  was 
fully  convinced.  Diggs  was  too  excellent 
a  neighbor  and  too  distinguished  a  sleuth 
to  fail  in  such  a  crisis,  and  in  a  period  of 
time  that  would  have  been  impossible  to 
anybody  save  one  at  the  head  of  his  pro- 
176 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

fession  he  was  able  to  report  that  much 
property  on  the  street  had  been  quietly 
bought  up,  and  that  it  was  the  purpose  to 
erect  an  apartment  building  that  would 
swallow  not  only  the  Ballinger  cottage  but 
several  houses  and  lots  adjoining. 

To  say  that  consternation  and  wrath  pre 
vailed  at  this  unprecedented  outrage  would 
mildly  convey  the  feelings  of  the  commu 
nity.  At  once  it  was  pronounced  unworthy 
of  belief.  Surely  no  man  or  company 
would  dare  profane  so  quiet  and  reputable 
a  street — a  street  renowned  not  only  for 
its  general  air  of  domesticity,  but  for  its 
proximity  to  the  Bascom  estate.  Dis 
claiming  all  idea  of  reflecting  on  the  pro 
fessional  dignity  and  ability  of  Diggs, 
scouts,  male  and  female,  scurried  in  all 
directions  to  get  such  particulars  as  would 
discredit  the  report  and  restore  the  normal 
harmony,  when  just  at  the  crisis  of  Diggs 's 
reputation,  Thomas's  landlord  appeared  at 
the  cottage,  confirmed  the  dismal  tidings, 
and  requested  Thomas  to  prepare  to  vacate 
the  following  spring. 
177 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

It  may  have  been  gathered  that  such  a 
man  as  Thomas  was  not  easily  moved  by 
emergencies.  That  the  word  ' ' emergency' ' 
had  even  a  place  in  his  lexicon  the  con 
tinuous  record  of  his  life  disproved.  True, 
trifles  had  arisen  at  one  time  and  another 
to  disturb  the  household  and  temporarily 
disarrange  the  domestic  machinery.  Pay 
ments  had  been  necessarily  suspended, 
creditors  had  become  importunate,  and 
there  had  been  occasionally  some  idle  talk 
of  legal  proceedings,  but  affairs  had  always 
adjusted  themselves  properly  in  the  end, 
and  that  which  gave  indications  of  a  storm 
turned  out  nothing  more  serious  than  a 
slight  and  inconsequential  interruption. 
Thomas  had  returned  to  his  library  after 
these  unsettled  periods  as  tranquil  as  when 
he  emerged,  satisfied  that  this  is  a  very 
easy-going  world  and  that  it  is  injurious  to 
correct  living  to  magnify  trifles.  The 
thought  that  at  any  time  a  serious  calamity 
might  threaten,  by  which  he  might  be  sepa 
rated  from  his  books  or  his  home,  probably 
never  occurred  to  him.  If  it  had  entered 
178 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

his  mind  his  optimistic  nature  would  have 
dismissed  it  as  a  bugaboo,  not  worthy  to 
interfere  with  more  important  literary  occu 
pation. 

To  the  proposition  involving  the  transfer 
of  his  library  for  the  consideration  of  fifteen 
thousand  dollars  Thomas  had  not  alluded 
since  the  evening  it  preyed  so  heavily  on 
his  mind,  and  whether  he  had  forgotten  it 
entirely  or  thought  of  it  only  as  a  dream 
he  gave  no  intimation.  Hannah  had  never 
referred  to  the  subject,  presumably  con 
sidering  it  a  mere  emotion  of  the  moment, 
and  Bascom  was  too  disconcerted  by  the 
enormity  of  his  own  offense  to  tempt 
another  rebuke.  Yet  those  who  were  near 
to  the  old  bibliophile  noticed  the  change  that 
had  come  over  him.  Usually  preoccupied 
and  inattentive,  save  when  books  were  the 
subject  of  discourse,  his  preoccupation  had 
settled  into  almost  complete  mental  ab 
straction;  his  cheerfulness  had  given  way 
to  long  spells  of  melancholy,  and  when  it 
fully  dawned  upon  him  that  the  little  cot 
tage  could  be  his  home  no  longer,  he 
179 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

seemed  suddenly  to  lose  all  heart  and  hope 
and  to  become  the  child  in  action  that 
throughout  his  life  he  had  been  in  pur 
pose. 

None  was  quicker  to  observe  this  change 
than  Helen,  whose  accumulation  of  nearly 
twenty  years  and  sympathetic  association 
with  the  bookman  aided  her  keen  percep 
tions.  Very  anxiously  she  had  watched 
Thomas  as  he  grew  older  and  feebler,  and 
only  she  could  draw  him  out  of  himself  and 
kindle  a  spark  of  the  old  enthusiasm.  He 
sent  for  her  when  the  knowledge  of  his 
crowning  disaster  came  full  upon  him,  and 
she,  hastening  to  the  den,  found  him 
standing  at  the  window  looking  mournfully 
out  upon  the  great  lake.  Since  he  did  not 
hear  her  step  coming  up  behind  him,  she 
paused,  hesitating  to  break  in  upon  his 
revery.  Still  he  gave  no  sign  of  a  knowl 
edge  of  her  presence,  so  she  came  lightly 
forward,  and  putting  her  arm  around  him 
and  her  head  on  his  shoulder,  began  to 
quote  softly  and  in  a  tone  of  infinite  tender 
ness: 

180 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

"  'Musing  alone  on  the  shore,  and  watching  the  wash 

of  the  billows 
Round  the  base  of  the  rock,  and  the  sparkle  and  flash 

of  the  sunshine, 
Like   the   spirit  of  God,  moving  visibly  over  the 

waters.' " 

And  Thomas,  still  gazing  out  upon  the 
blue  surface  of  the  lake,  and  gently  press 
ing  the  hand  at  his  side,  took  up  the  sug 
gestion  of  the  poem  and  repeated: 

"  'Must  I  relinquish  it  all,  the  joy,  the  hope,  the  illu 
sion? 

Was  it  for  this  I  have  loved,  and  waited,  and  wor 
shiped  in  silence?' " 

Then  he  said  very  quietly:  "It  was  good 
of  you  to  come,  little  girl,  but  I  knew  you 
would.  You  and  I  have  stood  so  many 
times  at  this  window,  and  I  felt  that  I 
could  not  speak  to  anybody  of  parting  until 
we  together  had  said  the  first  good  by. ' ' 

"But,  Tommy,"  pleaded  Helen,  "you 
are  speaking  so  wildly.  There  is  no  occa 
sion  to  say  good  by.  Nothing  has  hap 
pened  as  yet  to  make  you  despondent. 
Things  are  as  they  always  were." 

"It  was  all  my  fault.  I  heedlessly 
181 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

cherished  the  joy,  the  hope,  the  illusion, 
from  which  nothing  could  come.  I  lived 
in  the  summer  of  happiness.  My  home 
was  our  playground,  Helen,  my  books  our 
playthings.  And  now — " 

"And  now,"  interrupted  the  girl  with  a 
gayety  that  was  plainly  forced,  "things 
are  going  to  be  very  much  as  they  have 
always  been.  Do  you  think  that  this  win 
dow  is  the  only  spot  in  the  city  that  com 
mands  a  view  of  the  Gurnet  and  the  reef 
and  the  other  places  we  have  delighted  in 
all  these  years?  Do  you  think  there  is  no 
other  room  so  pleasant  and  attractive  as 
this,  where  books  may  be  kept  and  studies 
may  be  followed?" 

' '  But  it  has  been  my  home, ' '  replied  the 
old  man,  bewildered  by  the  sudden  ques 
tions. 

"Of  course  it  has  been  your  home,  and 
it  is  still  your  home,  and  for  all  we  know 
now  it  may  be  your  home  forever. ' ' 

"Do  you   really   believe    that?"   asked 
Thomas,    with   a   childish   eagerness   that 
brought  the  girl's  heart  to  her  throat.     "It 
182 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

seems  to  me  that  I  could  never  know 
another  home.  I  could  never  accustom 
myself  to  any  other  surroundings.  The 
lake  would  not  be  the  same  lake.  A  den, 
however  luxurious,  could  not  take  the  place 
of  this  den.  Even  could  I  have  my  books 
they  would  not  be  content  with  strange 
quarters  and  unaccustomed  places." 

"And  this,"  said  Helen,  in  the  same 
gentle  tone  of  raillery,  and  turning  away 
her  face  that  he  might  not  see  the  compas 
sion  there,  "is  my  brave  Tommy,  who  was 
brought  up  among  the  Concord  philoso 
phers.  This  is  the  strong  teacher  who 
tried  to  make  me  self-reliant  and  coura 
geous,  and  who  showed  me  the  beauties  of 
the  philosophy  he  taught.  Have  you  forgot 
ten  your  Emerson  already,  Tommy?  Have 
you  forgotten  what  you  and  he  told  me? 
'Let  us  build  to  the  Beautiful  Necessity, 
which  makes  man  brave  in  believing  that 
he  cannot  shun  a  danger  that  is  appointed, 
nor  incur  one  that  is  not. '  ' ' 

' '  I  am  not  brave, ' '  sighed  the  old  book 
man,  "and  I  am  not  strong.  I  know  that 
183 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

I  have  failed  miserably,  and  that  I  have  the 
heart  of  a  coward.  And  why, ' '  he  added, 
querulously,  "is  the  Beautiful  Necessity 
that  I  should  leave  my  home?  Mr.  Emer 
son  was  never  put  to  that  test.  Perhaps  if 
he  had  been  he  would  not  have  expressed 
himself  so  philosophically." 

"Don't  say  that,"  said  Helen,  gently. 
"Don't  shatter  all  my  ideals,  Tommy." 

"But  it  is  true,"  replied  Thomas,  still 
nursing  his  wounds.  "It  is  very  easy  to 
talk  and  write  philosophy,  and  to  smile  at 
the  Beautiful  Necessity  when  the  Beautiful 
Necessity  exists  only  in  your  imagination. 
But  even  Seneca  weakened  when  the  test 
came." 

"Very  well,  then,"  said  the  girl,  "I  see 
that  I  must  prove  that  in  your  case  it  is 
only  a  question  of  the  imagination."  And 
she  smiled  as  she  added:  "You  must 
promise  me,  Tommy,  that  you  will  not  try 
to  imitate  Seneca." 

Thomas  was  not  proof  against  the  influ 
ence  of  this  cheerfulness,  and  already  he 
was  ashamed  of  the  weakness  he  had  be- 
184 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

trayed.  "We  shall  open  no  veins  in  this 
house,  Helen,"  he  said,  with  a  touch  of 
his  old  lightness.  "I  shall  try  to  make  up 
in  philosophy  what  I  lack  in  blood.  And 
even  with  you  to  cheer  me,  dear,  I  shall 
need  them  both. ' ' 

Decision,  as  has  been  shown,  was  not 
the  least  of  Helen  Bascom's  virtues.  No 
sooner  had  she  reached  her  home  than  she 
went  straight  to  her  father  and  said,  with 
out  any  preliminary  fencing: 

"Father,  something  must  be  done  for 
Tommy. ' ' 

"What,  again?  What's  the  matter  with 
the  Professor  now?" 

Bascom's  tone  was  that  of  mild  surprise 
and  gentle  interest,  but  Helen  was  too 
absorbed  in  her  own  affair  to  stop  to  analyze 
his  emotions.  "He  is  in  deep  trouble," 
said  she. 

"It  seems  to  me,"  mused  Bascom, 
"that  the  Professor  is  always  in  trouble. 
He  has  a  perfect  genius  for  it.  I  don't 
believe  I  ever  knew  a  man  who  so  rioted 
in  trouble  as  the  Professor.  This  comes 
185 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

of  bringing  up  a  man  without  a  business 
education.  Now,  when  I — " 

"Yes,  father,  I  know,"  interrupted  the 
girl,  "but  you  are  not  the  one  in  question. 
You  are  never  in  trouble,  except  when  I 
trouble  you,  and  I  am  afraid  I  am  going  to 
do  that  right  now.  Father, ' '  she  contin 
ued,  rather  explosively,  "did  you  ever  hear 
of  Maecenas?" 

"H-m, "  said  Bascom,  with  an  inflection 
which  might  have  been  construed  either 
affirmatively  or  negatively;  Bascom  was 
too  sharp  a  business  man  to  commit  him 
self  unadvisedly. 

"For  whether  you  have  or  not,"  went 
on  the  girl,  "I  am  going  to  be  a  Maecenas 
— with  your  help  and  approval,  of  course, ' ' 
she  added  diplomatically. 

"O,  of  course,"  replied  Bascom,  "I 
could  not  think  of  letting  you  do  anything 
without  my  help.  Thank  you  very  much; 
it  is  so  good  of  you  to  think  of  me. " 

Helen  ignored  the  fatherly  satire  and 
proceeded  to  project  a  little  of  her  own, 
first  taking  the  precaution  to  administer  a 
1 86 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

daughterly  kiss  where  it  would  be  most 
effective.  "It  seems  tome,  daddy,'*  she 
said,  "that  I  remember  that  once  when  a 
deputation  from  a  hospital  board  came  to 
wait  on  a  generous  man  of  my  acquaintance 
to  thank  him  for  a  large  subscription,  I 
heard  him  say  that  it  is  not  merely  the 
duty  but  the  rare  pleasure  of  those  who  are 
blessed  with  wealth  to  give  freely  to  and 
help  those  who  are  unfortunate." 

"The  exact  words,"  laughed  Bascom, 
"and  a  fair  hit,  Helen.  I  acknowledge  it. 
So  you  think  we  must  help  the  Professor?" 

Helen's  association  with  Thomas  had 
imbued  her  somewhat  with  his  roundabout 
methods.  She  plumped  herself  into  her 
father's  lap,  and  stroked  his  face  for 
several  minutes  without  replying.  Then 
she  said  abruptly: 

"You  think  me  a  very  superior  sort  of 
girl,  don't  you,  daddy  dear?" 

Bascom  was  too  entranced  to  answer, 
but  he  nodded  blissfully. 

"And  do  you  remember  how  proud  you 
were  that  day  in  school  when  the  principal 
187 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

in  his  address  to  the  scholars  attributed  a 
quotation  to  the  wrong  author  and  I  cor 
rected  him?" 

Bascom  remembered  the  incident,  though 
to  do  his  business  education  full  justice  he 
did  not  recall  the  quotation. 

"Do  you  remember  also  when  the  rector 
said  that  he  was  glad  to  see  one  young 
woman  in  his  parish  who  was  fond  of  read 
ing,  and  who  cared  little  for  frivolous 
society?" 

Bascom  nodded  again,  for  he  had  a 
famous  memory  for  everything  that  con 
cerned  his  child. 

Then  Helen  came  to  the  point.  "I 
cannot  forget  all  that  you  and  mother  have 
done  for  me,"  she  said,  reaching  up  to 
kiss  her  father,  "for  no  girl  ever  had  better 
or  kinder  parents.  But  do  you  know, 
daddy,  I  can't  help  thinking — I  am  sure, 
that  much  that  is  best  and  truest  in  me  is 
due  to  Tommy.  When  you  thought  I  was 
playing  with  the  children,  he  was  my 
teacher  in  the  little  den  that  was  my 
school-room.  He  has  been  my  companion 
188 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

and  guide  ever  since  I  was  a  little  girl. 
It  was  Tommy  who  taught  me  to  love  the 
things  that  are  beautiful  in  life.  And  to 
think  that  my  dear  old  Tommy  is  in 
trouble!" 

The  girl  was  weeping,  and  Bascom  was 
gulping  furiously.  "Who  says  the  Pro 
fessor  is  in  trouble?"  he  demanded,  sternly. 
"He  may  think  he  is  in  trouble,  but  that 
proves  nothing.  Ask  your  mother.  She 
has  been  looking  into  the  practical  side  of 
Christian  Science  lately,  and  she  knows 
that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  trouble.  It 
is  purely  a  matter  of  the  imagination." 

"But  I  think  I  am  in  trouble,  daddy, 
and  you  will  help  me?" 

"Of  course  I'll  help  you.  But  no  more 
offers  to  buy  that  library.  I  have  had 
enough  of  that  business.  If  it  is  anything 
in  the  way  of  a  foreign  mission  or  a  place 
in  the  diplomatic  service,  or  the  county 
ticket,  I'll  do  what  I  can." 

Helen  shook  her  head.  "It  is  nothing 
of  that  sort,  daddy;  it  is  much  easier  than 
that.  Let  me  think  it  over  for  a  day  or 
189 


The  Bondage  of  Eallmger 

two,  and  then  I'll  let  you  into  my  secret — 
our  secret. " 

Mrs.  Bascom  swept  imperiously  into  the 
room.  "What  are  you  two  muttering  and 
hobnobbing  about?"  she  asked,  rather 
fiercely.  Christian  Science  had  not  soothed 
all  the  asperities  of  Mrs.  Bascom 's  bristling 
nature,  or  eradicated  all  the  germs  of  ag 
gressiveness  from  her  disposition. 

"We  were  just  giving  a  wayward  old  and 
invalid  friend  of  ours  a  little  absent  treat 
ment, "  replied  Bascom,  slyly  punching  his 
daughter.  And  Helen  smiled  through  her 
tears. 

That  night  Thomas  Ballinger  stirred  in 
his  sleep.  He  was  dreaming  that  he  was 
sinking,  sinking,  sinking  into  a  black  and 
terrible  quagmire,  and  something  all  in 
white,  and  with  the  face  of  an  angel, 
rustled  by,  and  raised  him  up,  and  carried 
him  off  to  a  garden  where  flowers  were 
blooming  and  birds  were  singing. 


190 


WHEN  the  good  fairies  assembled  at 
the  birth  of  Helen  Bascom,  as 
they  are  bound  to  do  in  compliment  to  all 
princesses,  native  and  foreign,  they  vied 
with  one  another  in  eagerness  to  contribute 
the  best  of  their  gifts.  "I  will  give  her 
wealth/'  said  one.  "And  I  beauty,"  said 
another.  "And  I  health  and  spirits, " 
chimed  in  a  third.  And  so  they  lavished 
their  offerings,  adding  intelligence,  wit, 
goodness,  until  it  seemed  that  the  poor 
infant  must  pass  away  under  the  accumu 
lation  of  so  many  blessings.  But  when 
they  had  finished,  the  eldest  of  the  fairies, 
who  had  not  yet  spoken,  smiled  upon  the 
others  and  signified  that  she  would  be 
pleased  to  address  the  convocation. 

"I  think  I  may  say,  my  dear  sisters," 
she  began,  "that  this  dear  child  is  starting 
in  life  under  peculiarly  brilliant  auspices, 
and  that  you  have  done  what  you  can  to 
make  her  at  least  superficially  attractive. 
191 


The  Bondage  of  Ealllnger 

It  would  appear  that  there  is  very  little  left 
for  me  to  suggest,  and  I  really  feel  a  deli 
cacy  in  venturing  to  add  anything  as  a  com 
plement  to  your  work.  However,  I  have 
reserved  my  gift  for  the  last,  and  fortu 
nately,  for  I  perceive  that  with  the  responsi 
bility  of  your  donations  she  will  need  it,  I 
will  give  her  common  sense. ' ' 

Now,  the  only  child  of  a  millionaire 
father  and  a  worldly  mother  needs  nothing 
quite  so  much  as  the  patronage  of  the  eldest 
of  the  fairies,  and  it  may  be  that  had  this 
wise  and  estimable  spirit  not  been  present 
at  the  conference,  the  narrative  of  the  haps 
and  mishaps  of  Thomas  Ballinger  never 
would  have  been  written.  Common  sense 
is  an  extremely  valuable  contribution  to 
the  fairy  dower  of  any  young  woman,  and 
when  to  that  is  added  the  quality  of  deter 
mination  which  should  accompany  it,  it 
may  be  suspected  that  a  girl  child  has  been 
born  to  some  purpose. 

Bascom  had  made  up  his  mind  that  the 
twentieth  anniversary  of  the  merry  meet 
ing  specified  should  be  celebrated  with  all 
192 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

the  splendor  and  hilarity  commensurate 
with  so  important  an  event,  but  to  this  Miss 
Helen  interposed  a  positive  objection. 
"No  more  brass-band  parties  for  me,"  she 
said.  "We  had  noise  enough  four  years 
ago,  and  that  we  outlived  it  is  no  reason 
why  we  should  tempt  Providence  a  second 
time."  Bascom  looked  pained.  He  ad 
mitted  that  there  might  have  been  certain 
worldly  features  which  could  be  dispensed 
with,  but  as  a  patriotic  American  citizen,  he 
was  loth  to  surrender  the  idea  of  fireworks 
in  the  evening.  Your  true  American  is  a 
firm  believer  in  the  efficacy  of  rockets  and 
Roman  candles  as  the  relief  for  a  surcharge 
of  enthusiasm,  and  Bascom,  as  may  have 
been  conveyed,  was  a  true  American. 

Miss  Helen  was  obstinate,  but  when  she 
saw  the  cloud  come  over  her  father's  face, 
and  listened  to  his  argument  for  pyrotech 
nics,  she  drew  him  aside  and  said,  coax- 
ingly:  "Let  me  have  my  way  just  for 
once,  daddy,  and  we'll  have  a  celebration 
that  will  make  it  the  happiest  day  of  my 
life."  And  Bascom,  who  was  the  kind- 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

est,  and  therefore  the  weakest,  of  all  fa 
thers,  consented  to  let  her  have  her  way 
"just  for  once." 

Twenty  years  may  bring  many  changes, 
Thomas  Ballinger,  if  Father  Time  is  inex 
orable.  It  is  not  enough  that  babies  may 
grow  to  manhood  and  womanhood,  that 
youth  may  advance  to  middle  age,  that 
middle  age  may  decline  into  senility;  death 
may  reap  a  gloomy  harvest  in  twenty  years 
if  the  fates  are  unkind  and  the  gods  are 
indifferent.  And  again  there  are  double 
decades  when  Father  Time  moves  gently, 
however  swiftly,  when  his  scythe  remains 
upon  his  shoulder  as  he  passes  through  the 
neighborhood,  and  when  he  touches  lightly 
those  who  have  not  incurred  his  displeas 
ure.  This  was  once  a  part  of  your  philos 
ophy,  Thomas  Ballinger. 

They  are  all  with  you,  Thomas,  when 
the  curtain  goes  up  on  the  last  act  of  the 
comedy.  The  little  girl,  who  first  amused 
you  in  your  playhouse  of  books — here  she 
is,  a  woman  grown,  just  as  beautiful  and 
just  as  true  as  a  younger  and  more  ardent 
194 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

lover  might  have  wished!  And  Hannah, 
patient,  noble  old  Hannah,  still  bearing  her 
cross  of  faded  hopes  and  disappointed 
hungerings  with  a  meekness  which  glorifies 
the  white  crown  upon  her  head!  And 
Betty,  loyal,  faithful,  impulsive,  scorning 
alike  both  years  and  trouble!  And  Bas- 
com,  rounder  and  rosier  as  the  cycles  fly, 
the  complete  exemplar  of  a  solid  business 
man!  And  Mrs.  Colver,  full  of  informa 
tion  and  the  beginning  of  wisdom!  And 
Diggs,  the  Nestor  of  detectives,  the  great, 
the  glorious,  the  international  Diggs! 
Father  Time  has  considered  them  as  he 
has  gone  up  and  down  the  earth,  and  has 
spared  them! 

And  you,  Thomas  Ballinger,  what  have 
you  to  show  for  these  years  of  opportunity? 
When  the  great  books  are  made  up  and  the 
reckoning  comes,  what  will  be  written 
down  to  your  credit?  To  all  appearances 
you  are  a  broken  man,  a  feeble,  tottering 
old  man,  with  a  life  of  misused  purpose 
behind  and  a  year  or  two  of  anxious  wait 
ing  and  dread  to  come.  Where  is  that 
195 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

philosophy  which  sustained  you  when  you 
were  young  and  vigorous  and  intent  only 
on  the  ease  of  the  present?  What  has 
become  of  that  temporal  weakness,  which 
is  sometimes  called  optimism,  that  cheered 
and  deceived  you  because  you  were  young 
and  strong  enough  to  believe  in  fallacies 
and  phantoms?  Do  ghosts  come  from  the 
bookcases  to  comfort  you,  Thomas?  Do 
they  help  you  in  misfortune?  Do  they  aid 
you  in  trouble? 

Yet  Father  Time  has  not  neglected  you, 
Thomas  Ballinger.  He  was  with  you  in 
your  youth,  and  when  you  were  visionary 
and  fanciful  He  accompanied  you  when 
you  roamed  aimlessly  east  and  west.  He 
walked  with  you  in  all  your  days  of  mad 
ness,  and  perhaps  he  chided  you  and 
warned  you,  for  Time  is  a  great  mentor  if 
only  you  will  listen.  And  he  is  still  stalk 
ing  behind  you,  with  his  scythe  upon  his 
shoulder,  but  if  you  strain  your  ears  you 
will  hear  him  say,  ' '  Not  yet.  * ' 

For  Father  Time  has  been  a  teacher  to 
you,  Thomas,  and  if  you  have  learned  too 
196 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

late  for  your  advancement  the  lesson  he 
imparted,  the  fruits  of  that  teaching  are  to 
be  seen  in  your  humility,  your  gentleness, 
your  silent  confession  of  your  error,  your 
effort  to  bear  bravely  whatever  sorrow  the 
future  may  have  in  store.  He  has  trans 
formed  you  from  a  recluse,  a  dreamer,  a 
selfish,  yes,  a  selfish  pleasure-seeker,  into 
a  repentant,  gentle,  lovable  old  man. 
Time  has  been  lenient  with  you,  Thomas 
Ballinger. 

When  Helen  Bascom  announced  that  her 
birthday  party  would  assume  the  propor 
tions  of  a  small  and  select  picnic  in  the 
country,  Mrs.  Bascom  came  as  near  taking 
to  her  bed  as  the  condition  of  so  vigorous 
and  forceful  a  woman  would  permit.  And 
when  the  wilful  young  lady  supplemented 
this  crushing  information  with  the  further 
intelligence  that  the  guests  would  be  con 
fined  to  Thomas  and  Hannah  and  one  or 
two  others  of  that  irreproachable  but  hum 
ble  set,  Mrs.  Bascom  rebelled  outright. 
"This  comes,"  she  said,  scornfully,  "of 
associating  with  nobodies.  If  you  and 
197 


The  Bondage  of  Eallmger 

Helen, "  she  continued,  addressing  Bas- 
com,  who  listened  deferentially,  "choose  to 
put  in  a  day  accumulating  ants  and  spiders, 
that  is  your  privilege;  as  for  me,  I  shall 
remain  at  home  where  I  can  find  better 
company  of  all  classes." 

"The  Major  is  not  in  a  frame  of  mind  to 
add  to  the  gayety  of  the  occasion, ' '  whis 
pered  Bascom  to  his  daughter,  "and  per 
haps  it  is  just  as  well  that  she  does  not 
grace  the  festivities  with  her  presence. 
But  we  shall  get  along  somehow. ' ' 

In  justice  to  Mrs.  Bascom  it  is  to  be 
admitted  that  a  picnic,  never  a  very  ex 
hilarating  function  under  the  most  favorable 
conditions,  would  naturally  lack  spontane 
ous  merriment  when  conducted  in  the  in 
terest  of  two  such  sedate  personages  as  the 
Ballingers.  And  although  the  place  of 
revelry  was  Bascom 's  farm,  not  many 
miles  distant  from  the  city,  and  although 
Bascom  exerted  himself  to  the  utmost  in 
exhibiting  the  wonders  of  his  estate,  he 
would  have  confessed,  on  compulsion,  that 
it  was  a  good  deal  like  work,  however 
198 


The  Bondage  of  Eallmger 

noble  the  cause.  Thomas  had  obtained 
leave  of  absence  for  the  day,  and  as  he 
had  certain  hazy  and  indefinite  ideas  as  to 
the  programme  at  picnics,  and  in  order  to 
be  on  the  safe  side,  he  had  provided  him 
self  with  two  or  three  books  wherewith  to 
replenish  his  mind  as  he  stretched  out 
under  a  tree,  oblivious  of  any  obligation 
that  might  rest  upon  him  as  a  member  of 
the  party. 

To  add  to  the  perplexity  of  the  function 
Bascom,  who  was  in  a  most  unintelligible 
flow  of  spirits,  behaved  in  a  most  mysteri 
ous  manner.  He  would  wander  up  to 
Thomas  with  no  apparent  purpose,  poke 
him  in  the  side,  and  ask,  "How  are  you 
coming  on,  Ballinger?"  and  then  go  off 
into  silent  convulsions  of  merriment.  He 
would  steal  over  to  Helen,  point  to  the 
unconscious  old  man  buried  in  his  reading, 
and  shake  his  sides  with  excess  of  mirth. 
In  vain  Helen  reproved  this  unseemly  lev 
ity  and  expostulated  with  her  sire  for  his 
giddiness;  reproof  merely  brought  forth 
another  explosion,  the  more  inexplicable 
199 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

because  Bascom,  while  a  kindly  and  genial 
gentleman,  was  not  known  to  the  commu 
nity  as  an  example  of  sustained  hilarity. 
The  climax  was  reached  shortly  after  din 
ner  when  a  telegram  came  recalling  Helen 
to  the  city.  Now,  there  was  no  apparent 
reason  why  such  a  calamity  should  excite 
glee,  but  no  sooner  had  the  telegram  been 
delivered  and  read  to  the  sorrowing  party 
than  Bascom,  unable  to  control  himself, 
laughed  until  the  tears  rolled  down  his 
cheeks.  Surely  never  was  so  eccentric  a 
person  as  Bascom. 

The  departure  of  Helen,  which  was  at 
tended  with  many  expressions  of  polite 
regret,  did  not  appear  to  exercise  a  re 
straining  influence  on  her  father,  who 
passed  the  afternoon  in  a  condition  of  boy 
ish  excitement  quite  reprehensible  and  in 
excusable  in  a  man  of  his  age.  He  ran 
back  and  forth,  from  one  person  to  another, 
indulging  in  remarkable  innuendoes  which 
nobody  seemed  to  understand,  and  pump 
ing  poor  Thomas  with  questions  of  so 
irrelevant  a  nature  that  the  worthy  old  man 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

looked  at  him  in  grieved  astonishment. 
Even  on  the  train  returning  to  the  city 
Bascom's  hilarious  mood  did  not  diminish, 
but  in  fact  increased  to  such  an  extent  that 
had  he  not  been  recognized  as  a  man  of 
the  most  correct  habits,  a  good  deal  of 
natural  suspicion  might  have  been  excited. 
Altogether  it  was  fortunate  that  Mrs. 
Bascom  had  withdrawn  herself  from  the 
party;  that  circumspect  woman  could  not 
have  borne  with  patience  the  extraordinary 
antics  of  this  most  extraordinary  man, 
Bascom. 

When  they  reached  the  city  surprising 
things  began  to  happen.  It  was  strange 
that  Bascom's  carriage  should  be  found 
just  large  enough  to  hold  the  entire  party 
with  the  exception  of  Thomas.  It  was 
strange  that  Bascom,  usually  the  kindest 
and  most  considerate  of  men,  should  sug 
gest  to  Thomas,  his  guest,  that  he  might 
go  home  on  the  surface  cars,  and  it  was 
wholly  incomprehensible  that  when  this 
inhospitable  suggestion  was  made,  it  was 
accompanied  by  a  chuckle  that  was  plainly 
aoi 


The  Bondage  of  Ballmger 

out  of  place.  It  was  strange  that  when 
Thomas  reached  the  corner  of  his  street  he 
ran  against  Helen  in  the  most  accidental 
way,  and  it  was  positively  remarkable  how 
many  of  the  neighbors  were  standing  on 
their  porches  as  they  walked  along,  bowing 
and  smiling  and  showing  evidences  of  un 
usual  interest. 

A  shrewder  man  than  you,  Thomas 
Ballinger,  would  have  suspected  something 
long  ago.  These  smiles  and  chuckles, 
these  unaccustomed  happenings,  this  chain 
of  coincidences  would  have  given  rise  to 
mistrust  in  a  mind  not  dulled  by  seclusion, 
with  perceptions  blunted  by  long  inter 
course  with  musty  books.  It  was  the  fault 
of  your  education,  Thomas,  the  glaring 
mental  deficiency  of  one  shut  out  from  the 
keen  and  observing  activity  of  the  commer 
cial  world.  Bascom  was  surely  right 
when  he  said  that  business  is  the  thing  to 
develop  a  man's  faculties,  to  make  him 
alert  and  able  to  cope  with  the  snares  and 
deceits  of  life. 

Had  you  possessed  the  ordinary  appre- 

202 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

hension  of  a  business  man,  Thomas,  you 
would  have  pricked  up  your  ears  when  Mrs. 
Colver  spoke  of  burglars  as  you  passed  her 
house,  laughing  as  she  said  the  words. 
You  would  have  smiled  when  you  found 
your  front  door  open  and  the  trace  of 
muddy  boots  on  the  porch.  You  would 
have  winked  knowingly  when  you  saw  the 
paper  in  the  hall  scratched  and  torn,  and 
the  woodwork  defaced.  You  would  not 
have  rushed  so  wildly  up  the  stairs  and 
into  the  den,  and  you  would  not  have 
staggered  against  the  wall  at  the  sight  you 
there  beheld. 

Gone!  Devastation,  and  irreparable 
ruin!  Not  a  picture  on  the  walls,  not  a 
book  on  the  shelves,  not  a  paper  or  scrap 
of  writing  on  the  tables!  Worse  and 
worse,  not  a  shelf,  not  a  table,  not  a  book 
case  to  be  seen!  Oh,  the  vandals  that  could 
desecrate  so  holy  a  spot! 

What  happy  chance  was  it,  Thomas,  as 

you  hurried  back  to  the  street,  that  you 

found   Diggs,   of  all  men,   waiting  at  the 

door?     Admirable  Diggs!     Prince  of   de- 

203 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

tectives!  No  need  of  telling  the  news  to 
Diggs,  for  did  he  not  combine  with  his 
wonderful  power  of  tracing  criminals  the 
ability  to  guess  at  their  infamous  operations 
and  be  promptly  on  the  spot?  Few  men 
like  Diggs! 

"Don't  be  discouraged,  Mr.  Ballinger," 
said  this  great  man;  "we'll  find  the  ras 
cals  and  recover  the  plunder.  See!  here's 
a  clue  to  start  with.  Here  are  the  heavy 
tracks  of  a  large  wagon  right  in  front  of 
the  door.  That  was  the  wagon  that  car 
ried  away  the  goods.  What  are  we  to  do? 
Why,  just  follow  the  tracks  until  they 
stop."  And  Diggs  smiled  amiably  in 
recognition  of  his  own  cleverness.  Incom 
parable  Diggs!  Where  is  there  another 
detective  who  would  have  picked  up  a  clue 
so  easily? 

And  off  they  scampered,  with  Diggs  in 
front,  and  his  nose  close  to  the  ground  as 
if  trailing  the  scent.  But  go  as  fast  as  he 
might,  he  found  it  difficult  to  keep  ahead 
of  Thomas,  whose  white  face  and  set 
mouth  argued  ill  for  the  thieves  when  he 
ao4 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

encountered  them.  Down  the  street  they 
rushed,  now  to  the  right,  now  to  the  left, 
then  through  a  narrow  lane,  until  Diggs, 
who  kept  close  watch  of  the  wagon  tracks, 
pulled  up  with  a  shout. 

"Well,  blow  me,  if  here  isn't  a  nerve! 
The  rascals  have  carted  the  goods  right 
through  Mr.  Bascom's  place!" 

They  took  up  the  scent  again,  now 
closely  followed  by  Helen,  who  spoke  en 
couragingly  to  Thomas  and  sought  to  cheer 
him  with  repeated  assurances  that  the 
rogues  must  be  near  at  hand.  And  they 
wound  around  the  terrace  and  up  by  the 
garden  until  the  tracks  stopped  directly  in 
front  of  a  dwelling  newly  built  and  freshly 
painted. 

If  you  had  not  been  the  dullest  of  men, 
Thomas  Ballinger,  you  would  have  recog 
nized  at  a  glance  the  little  cottage  exactly 
like  your  own,  with  your  favorite  vines 
climbing  up  and  around  the  porch,  and  the 
bushes  growing  in  the  yard.  If  you  had 
stopped  to  reason  or  to  think,  if  you  had 
not  run  into  the  doorway,  through  the  hall, 
205 


The  Bondage  of  Ballanger 

and  up  the  stairs,  with  Diggs  and  Helen 
at  your  heels,  you  would  have  marveled 
how  wonderfully  like  surrounding  objects 
were  to  the  home  you  had  just  deserted. 
But  you  never  were  an  observing  man, 
Thomas. 

An  so  they  arrived  in  procession  at  the 
top  of  the  house,  and  lo!  here  was  the  den, 
and  here  the  bookcase,  books,  papers,  and 
pictures  just  as  Thomas  had  left  them  ten 
hours  before,  in  perfect  order  and  safe  and 
sound  down  to  the  smallest  autograph. 
Exhausted  by  his  race,  bewildered  and 
overcome  by  sudden  joy,  Thomas  fell  into 
a  chair — his  same  old  chair,  in  the  familiar 
position  by  the  table  and  near  the  lamp — 
and  his  head  sank  on  his  breast.  A  shout 
aroused  him,  and  here  in  the  doorway 
stood  Bascom,  holding  his  sides  and  roar 
ing  out  his  gratification.  And  good  old 
Hannah,  with  her  apron  at  her  eyes,  and 
on  her  face  the  sunshine  and  tears  of  an 
April  day.  And  Betty,  clapping  her  hands 
with  the  enthusiasm  of  a  child,  and  almost 
ready,  in  her  excitement,  to  give  notice. 
206 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

And  even  Mrs.  Bascom,  composed  but  evi 
dently  relenting,  and  struggling  between 
well-defined  ideas  of  decorum  and  womanly 
compassion. 

"As  an  officer  of  the  law/'  said  Diggs, 
with  a  prefatory  cough,  "I  have  tried  to 
do  my  duty,  but  I  am  now  put  to  the  pain 
ful  necessity  of  naming  the  criminal.  Mr. 
Bascom,  I  hate  to  do  it  but  I  must  arrest 
your  daughter. ' ' 

Then  there  was  more  laughing,  with 
hand-clapping,  and  Bascom  gave  alarming 
signs  of  impending  apoplexy.  But  Helen, 
her  face  radiant  with  happiness,  and  glisten 
ing  with  the  tears  that  always  come  with  a 
woman's  great  joy,  knelt  down  by  the 
side  of  the  arm-chair,  and  took  the  old 
man's  hands,  still  trembling,  in  her  own  and 
pressed  them  against  her  cheek,  and  said, 
hardly  loud  enough  for  the  others  to  hear: 

"Can't  you  understand,  Tommy?  Don't 
you  know  what  anniversary  this  is?  Have 
you  forgotten  that  I  am  twenty  years  old 
to-day,  and  don't  you  see  this  is  father's 
present  to  us — to  you  and  me,  Tommy, 
207 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

and  to  Aunt  Thou?  We  are  all  going  to 
live  here,  dear  old  Tommy,  the  rest  of  our 
days,  and  our  troubles  are  over  and  our 
good  times  have  come  to  stay. ' ' 

And  Bascom,  noisy,  big-hearted,  impa 
tient  Bascom,  who  had  recovered  his  voice 
and  who  abhorred  tears  when  everybody 
should  be  smiling,  roared  out,  "Come; 
now  that  we  understand  one  another,  let's 
go  downstairs  and  celebrate.  If  we  can't 
have  fireworks,  we  can  at  least  have  din 
ner." 

Downstairs  they  went,  Hannah  still 
drying  her  eyes,  and  Thomas  shaking  and 
clinging  to  Helen  like  the  old  child  he  was. 
And  Betty — deceitful,  untrustworthy  Betty 
— had  prepared  a  great  feast  and  brought 
it  on  in  state  while  Thomas  and  Hannah, 
hand  in  hand,  walked  about  the  room, 
pausing  delightedly  before  each  new  but 
familiar  object,  and  taking  notice  of  the 
improvements  so  long  desired.  And  there 
was  much  eating,  and  there  was  likewise 
great  merriment,  and  Bascom  made  a 
mighty  speech  in  which  the  fine  old  fellow 
208 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

thanked  everybody  in  the  room  for  per 
mitting  him  in  his  humble  way  to  do  a  bit 
of  good  in  the  world  and  to  add  to  the 
sum  of  human  pleasure.  And  if  he  incon 
sistently  blubbered  now  and  then  after  the 
strain  of  the  day,  who  will  rise  up  to  re 
proach  him? 

But  while  the  others  were  still  feasting 
and  making  merry,  Thomas  and  Helen 
stole  away  and  climbed  the  stairs  to  the 
little  den  where  the  new  life  was  beginning 
in  the  old  way.  And  the  girl  drew  Thomas 
to  the  window  and  pointed  to  the  waters  of 
the  lake,  rippling  and  shimmering  in  the 
moonlight. 

"Look,  Tommy!  there's  the  Gurnet, 
just  as  we  saw  it  in  the  former  home.  And 
there's  the  reef  of  Norman's  Woe  with  the 
breakers  beyond.  And  see,  Tommy! 
there  goes  the  northern  boat  with  its  lights 
and  shining  decks.  That's  our  May 
flower,  dear.  Don't  you  remember — 

'O  strong  hearts  and  true !  not  one  went  back  in  the 

Mayflower! 
No,  not  one  looked  back,  who  had  set  his  hand  to 

the  ploughing.' 

209 


The  Bondage  of  Eallinger 

That's  how  we  have  set  our  hand,  but  it  is 
easy  ploughing  now,  Tommy,  and  all  our 
work  hereafter  is  the  harvest. ' ' 

Then  Thomas  tried  to  speak,  but  his 
voice  failed  him,  and  all  he  could  say  was, 
' 'My  little  girl." 

"You  know,  Tommy,"  she  went  on 
gayly,  "I  told  you  I  was  going  to  be  your 
Maecenas,  and  I  have  simply  kept  my 
word.  If  I  had  known  how  simple  and 
pleasant  it  is  I  think  I  should  have  begun 
long  ago." 

"It  is  all  so  strange,  so  sudden, ' '  said 
the  old  man,  brokenly,  "and  I  have  been 
so  unworthy.  What  have  I  done  that  this 
should  come  to  me?" 

"What  have  you  done?  You,  who  led 
me  day  after  day  through  a  land  of  en 
chantment  and  into  kingdoms  which  other 
wise  I  never  might  have  known?  You, 
who  developed  the  best  that  was  in  me? 
You,  who  taught  me  nothing  that  was  not 
beautiful,  everything  that  was  helpful  and 
noble?  And  you  ask  me  what  you  have 
done?" 

2IO 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

"That  was  for  my  own  pleasure;  it  cost 
me  nothing  more  than  a  little  selfish  exer 
tion.  But  compared  with  this — " 

"See,  Tommy,"  interrupted  the  girl, 
gently,  and  turning  toward  the  water, 
"the  moon  is  shining  on  the  reef — just  as 
you  shone  on  my  poor  reef  of  a  mind,"  she 
added,  with  a  little  smile.  And  when  he 
started  to  speak  again,  and  to  thank  her, 
she  put  her  hand  over  his  lips  and  laid  her 
head  on  his  shoulder. 

"Don't,  Tommy  dear;  it  was  such  a 
little  thing." 

Thomas  lay  back  in  his  arm-chair  near 
the  table.  Wearied  by  the  excitement  of 
the  day,  and  the  tax  upon  his  strength,  by 
the  rush  of  happiness  and  the  last  hour  of 
communion  with  his  books,  he  closed  his 
eyes.  And  it  seemed  to  him  at  that  mo 
ment  that  he  heard  a  faint  whispering,  then 
a  rustling,  then  a  pattering  as  of  many 
feet,  and  languidly  looking,  he  saw  the 
pictures  on  queer  little  legs  clambering 
down  from  the  walls,  and  through  the  open 

211 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

doors  of  the  old  bookcase  the  books  piling 
one  over  another  in  their  haste  to  reach  the 
floor.  And  as  he  looked  in  his  wonder  he 
saw  his  chair  suddenly  surrounded  by  these 
sprites,  shaking  their  thin,  spider-like 
arms,  and  nodding  their  weird  heads. 
And  he  heard  a  voice  like  the  squeaking  of 
a  doll,  which  said: 

"Ho,  Thomas  Ballinger,  where  have  you 
hidden  her?  What  have  you  done  with  her 
that  you  would  keep  her  away  from  us?  A 
pretty  fellow  you,  Thomas!  Have  you 
thanked  her  for  yourself?  Have  you  shown 
any  appreciation  or  gratitude?  Have  you 
told  her  how  deeply  we  feel  our  debt  to 
her?  It  may  be  that  you  would  have  sold 
us  and  scattered  us — you  who  pretend  to 
be  so  loyal,  so  steadfast,  so  devoted  to  our 
interests — if  she  had  not  come  to  the 
rescue.  A  nice  idea  of  decency  you  have, 
Thomas.  Tell  us  where  she  is  that  we 
may  go  to  her  and  atone  with  our  gratitude 
for  your  thoughtlessness  and  neglect." 

Then  Thomas,  in  his  confusion,  lowered 
his  eyes,  but  when  he  heard  a  scampering 

212 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

and  a  noise  like  far-off  shouting  he  looked 
again,  and  he  saw  across  the  room  a  fair 
young  girl,  smiling  and  blushing  and  rais 
ing  her  hands  protestingly  to  the  little 
gnomes  who  surrounded  her.  And  as  they 
joined  their  elfish  hands  and  danced  in  their 
glee  and  murmured  their  thanks  and 
crooned  their  praises,  she  protested  the 
more,  now  with  tears  in  place  of  smiles, 
and — was  it  she  or  the  memory  of  a  voice 
that  exclaimed: 

"It  was  such  a  little  thing!" 

And  it  further  seemed  to  Thomas  that 
amid  the  rejoicing  and  the  confusion  he  was 
suddenly  spirited  away.  And  he  found 
himself  wandering  in  a  soft  and  pleasant 
land,  where  flowers  were  in  profusion  and 
nature  was  luxuriant.  The  woman  at  his 
side  was  young,  and  happiness  was  in  her 
eyes,  and  great  hope  in  her  heart.  On 
they  roamed,  over  wide  rivers  and  up  and 
down  high  mountains  and  across  deserts  of 
sand,  he  ever  pulling  and  urging  the  for 
ward  course,  she  patiently  enduring  and 
suffering  the  restless  flight.  And  though 
213 


The  Bondage  of  Ballinger 

her  strength  was  nearly  spent,  and  the 
years  had  aged  and  stricken  her,  though 
her  garments  were  in  tatters  and  her  feet 
were  bleeding,  still  she  went  on  uncom 
plainingly.  And  there  came  another  word 
to  Thomas:  "Greater  love  hath  no  man 
than  this." 

But  when  the  old  man,  overcome  by 
shame  and  penitence,  would  have  cried 
out,  mountains,  rivers,  desert,  pain,  and 
suffering  vanished,  and  there  fell  upon  him 
an  influence  of  infinite  rest  and  tenderness. 
And  looking  for  the  third  time  before  he 
should  give  himself  wholly  to  the  spell,  he 
felt  the  kiss  upon  his  forehead,  and  saw 
the  quiet  eyes,  and  heard  the  loving  voice 
of  the  faithful  one: 

"Thee'd  better  come  to  bed,  Thomas." 


214 


PRINTED  BY  R.  R.  DONNELLEY 
AND  SONS  COMPANY,  AT  THE 
LAKESIDE  PRESS,  CHICAGO,  ILL. 


866363 


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